Dr Brennan meet Dr Brennan
by LizD
Summary: What if Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan met Dr. Temperance "Tempe" Brennan in a TV/Book crossover AU. How would Booth respond to two? Can Tempe and Ryan show them the way while finding their own?
1. Chapter 1

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**By LizD**

A/N: I saw an interview were Kathy Reichs discussed the differences between Book Tempe and TV Brennan. Her impression was that TV Brennan was a younger version of Book Tempe - not really as there were so many background and idiosyncratic differences, but something like that. Having just devoured the books in the space of a couple of months and of course been a long time watcher of the show and a fanfix writer, I wondered what would happen if they actually met. In this six season of TV Brennan of upset (for good or bad, we won't know until the story is told), I thought it might be good for Brennan (TV) to meet Tempe (Book). Not sure how this story will end, not sure if there will be any interest in such a story. There is only one way to find out. Float this balloon and wait for the comments. The readers will tell me if this is worth pursuing. Please let me know.

As always with love and respect to the creator of Temperance Brennan, Kathy Reichs and to Hart Hanson et al for their interpretation of Ms. Reichs' creation. This is for fun and not profit.

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Brennan) was working in her office late one night finishing up the reports on a case they just closed. Actually it was the Squint Squad who had closed the case: Brennan, Hodgins, Angela, Cam and Clark Edison. They were the real detectives. They were the ones who were _**asking a thousand questions, a thousand times, catching people telling lies**_. They were the cops. They were also the scientists; the ones finding irrefutable proof, the kind of proof that stood up in court. It was a truly collaborative effort – well except for the gaping hole left by Booth's absence. Booth was … well, Booth was MIA, as per usual. He of course made the actual arrest; they all but handed him the murderer on a silver platter. Booth's name was quickly turning to MUD with the squints. Brennan said nothing.

Why? Booth hadn't been to the lab in months; the only time any of them saw him was at a crime scene and then he was usually heading off to get coffee. He rarely called Brennan to work the case with him (interview suspects or witnesses); instead they would meet at the diner and exchange notes. He was usually done eating before she arrived having just finished whatever meal with Hannah and was on his way back to the office. More than twice he stuck her with the check. It probably wasn't on purpose, he was just in such a hurry to get out of there, he forgot. At least that was how Brennan chose to view it.

Since coming back from Afghanistan and Maluku, respectively, Booth and Brennan spent very little time in each other's company. It was actually OK with Brennan. Booth was becoming increasingly more distracted. His work, his job, his career didn't hold his interest any more. She assumed it was Hannah's influence and Booth did nothing to dissuade her. Brennan tried to discuss it with him, but he received her inquiry as a confrontation and a condemnation of the choices he was making. Booth reacted badly – very badly. They had actually gotten into a real fight over it in which Booth told her – in no uncertain and less than friendly terms - that she didn't have the right to discuss his private life. When she questioned the status of their partnership, he mumbled something under his breath and walk away. Brennan took that to mean that the partnership was in peril, if there was anything left to salvage at all. The friendship was clearly already gone. Brennan shouldered the responsibility for that as well. The only upside was that Hannah had stopped making friendly overtures to Brennan and the rest of the Jeffersonian gang.

Brennan was naturally disconcerted and found it difficult to conceal when she had to field questions about Booth from her coworkers. She handled it badly as well, but always apologized quickly. Angela tried to talk to her about it one night, but Brennan still couldn't say anything negative about Booth and dismissed the subject. But Brennan knew. Angela knew. The entire Jeffersonian Medico-Legal lab knew. Booth and Brennan were no longer partners. There would be no formal severing of the relationship; it would just fade away. Brennan lost more than a partner, she lost her friend, the only man she had ever trusted and she blamed herself. It seemed that Booth blamed her too. Work was the only thing that would distract her enough to push through the development.

"Dr. Brennan?" A female voice called to her from her doorway. Brennan looked up to see a woman about twelve to fifteen years her senior (maybe a little older), blonde, blue eyed, thin, very thin. "Dr. Temperance Brennan?"

Brennan stood up. Typically her response would be annoyance that a stranger was allowed into the lab and up to her office, but something about this woman told Brennan that all would be OK. "Yes, may I help you?"

The woman smiled like she had a secret. "I'm not sure how to say this so I am just going to spit it out. I am Dr. Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist."

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

Dr. Temperance "Tempe" Brennan made her way through the throng of travelers at Dulles International Airport on a layover from Charlotte to Montreal. She didn't want to think about how many times she had flown that route. Working in two locations, indeed two countries and in two languages, had its upsides but the downsides were weighing on her at the moment: two homes, two sets of friends, two date books, and one hell of a commute. Well she actually only had one date book, but it was very hard to follow at times (she had to color code for location). She had been holding down two jobs for over a decade and a half. She started out as a professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte and did consulting with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina. Shortly before (or was it after or because of) her marriage broke up she took a job north of the border. So now she split her time between Charlotte and Montreal working for the _Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale_ for the province of Quebec. She found her work in Canada very exhilarating. There was a lot to learn about the culture and the way the city and province worked, but she had mastered it pretty well. Mastered might be too strong a word for it. She had made friends, colleagues and enemies; for the most part her co-workers respected her and the cops accepted her - for the most part. It was hard traveling back and forth, but it kept her from dwelling on the fact that she was well past forty and living alone with a cat who she dragged back and forth like a rag doll too – of course that was her choice (not the cat's).

She checked the reader board; her plane was delayed. She placed a call to Ryan to tell him not to wait up, in fact he should go home. She would be in no mood when she arrived and he was the Eveready Bunny. Ryan was _Lieutenant-d__é__tective Andrew Ryan, Section des crimes contre la personne, S__û__ret__é__ du Qu__é__bec_, a man she had known for too many years. At first they had just known of each other, then they worked together, and then he started asking her out (which she refused owning to not dating within her work pool and his reputation for being the office stud). He was more than persistent so she agreed a couple years. It wasn't a smooth. At the moment, they were in the next round of their ON-AGAIN/OFF AGAIN relationship – this round was on, very on, excessively ON. It was nice, it was good but still Tempe was leery. It was hard to deny that it was nice to have him around: tall, blondish (in the right light), hard body, blue eyed and sexy as hell. He knew it too. He always made her feel better (except of course when he didn't). This time he was pushing again for them to live together during her time in Montreal. He tried to convince her it would be good for Charlie (the bird they shared - a story for another time) but Tempe felt that it would not be good for Lily (his recovering addict, estranged daughter - a longer story for another time) who stayed with him two weekends a month; nor would not be good for Ryan (and whatever his activities were while she was out of town), and it wouldn't be good for Tempe either. Twenty years of marriage and repeated infidelity will turn anyone off cohabitation even on a part time basis. For the moment, Ryan was good for her ego and other parts of her anatomy. They often worked together and seemed to have come to some sort of working cohesiveness that worked for them. Oh yes, he had saved her life a time or two, so there was that.

She was sitting in the bar sipping her Perrier with lime LONGING for a big glass of Merlot (gave that up years ago too). Something on the TV caught her eye. There was a pretty young, youngish brunette being interviewed. Of course the sound was down even if she could hear over the din of the airport bar. What caught her attention was the name under the woman's image: _**Dr. Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist for the Jeffersonian Institution and consultant to the FBI's major crimes unit**_. Tempe nearly dropped her teeth. She repeated the name out loud as if hearing it in her own ears would somehow make it make sense. The bartender over heard her and chimed in with the little tidbit that Temperance Brennan was also a bestselling authoress. He of course had her latest book behind the bar and produced it as evidence.

Suddenly things started to make sense. Tempe would often be asked questions about cases she had never worked. People would assume that she was a novelist. She was occasionally accused of being affiliated with the FBI and the Jeffersonian. But how odd. The forensic anthropology community was not large. Less than one hundred scientists had been board certified. What were the odds that two would have the same name. It was just too coincidental. Why hadn't they ever met? Tempe decided to correct that little oversight immediately. She changed her plane, left a message for Ryan and hailed a cab to the Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab dragging Birdie (the cat) along with her.

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

"I'm not sure how to say this so I am just going to spit it out. I am Dr. Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist."

"Ah yes," said Brennan stepping forward extending her hand. "You are based in Montreal, I have heard of you."

"You have?" The hand shake was returned.

"Yes, there are not many in our community and certainly not our caliber."

"Why haven't I heard of you? Why haven't we met?"

"I can't speak to what you have heard or not heard, and as for us meeting, I suppose we were never in the same place at the same time."

Tempe almost laughed until the expression on Brennan's face showed that she was deadly serious. "Well I think it is high time we did meet, don't you?"

Brennan looked down at her desk. The timing was good. She had nothing pressing. "May I show you around the facilities, Dr. Brennan?"

"Please … call me Tempe," she smiled. "Is that what you go by?"

Brennan looked nervous. "My real name … my birth name was not Temperance Brennan. It was changed when I was very young."

"I'm sure there is a story there."

"Yes." Brennan didn't elaborate. "My mother, father and brother would call me Tempe. Closer friends called me Temperance. Colleagues called me Dr. Brennan. My best friend calls me Bren and my partner ..." She swallowed hard and averted her eyes for a moment. "He calls me Bones."

"Bones," Tempe laughed. "I have been called the Bone Lady, but never Bones."

"A name is not really important," Brennan said uncomfortably. She really didn't care what people called her.

"You don't believe that. Without agreed upon naming conventions how would people communicate?"

Brennan could not argue with her logic. "You may call me Brennan, then I suppose."

"Fine." Tempe stepped back. "Please I would love to see your facility. I can already tell that your funding is better than anything we have in Montreal or at UNCC."

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

They returned to Brennan's office about an hour and a half later. They talked like colleagues, sharing experiences, information they learned, resources they used. It was as if they had known each other for years. Brennan wouldn't normally be so forth coming but Tempe's direct poignant questions were a welcome change. They had many similar experiences in Guatemala, with the law enforcement community and putting their back up against the science when people didn't believe them. Tempe had shared a few of her cases that were near death experiences. Brennan was impressed and felt grateful that her field work had been with Booth. Tempe didn't have the luxury of a partner (at least not a consistent partner) to rely on. When Brennan voiced that interpretation, Tempe was the first to disregard it.

"I rarely do field work. Of course there is the crime scene, but typically I am a lab rat. At times I know something, or think I know something or feel that something is being overlooked by the police. It is then when I head out of my lab and start doing more detective work. It is typically not met with acceptance, but I've worked with some very fine law enforcement professionals and that includes the ones who didn't trust my interpretation of the evidence. It's true that I don't have a partner perse, but I am usually treated as part of the investigation and eventually they have to see that evidence is evidence. And of course - I'm not sure how this happens, but my toughest cases always have some personal connection that colors my thinking - a friend, a relative, someone out to kill me or just discredit me." Tempe smiled nervously.

Brennan just nodded remaining silent on her feeling about personal relationships effecting the work. 

"So you have never been married? No children?" Tempe asked.

"No and no. I contemplated having a child a little more than a year ago, but the situation became complicated and it was dropped."

"Complicated?"

"I had asked my partner if he would supply the sperm for in vitro fertilization."

"Your partner, huh?" Tempe assumed a relationship and suspected that the request for the sperm was less pragmatic.

"He has some very fine traits both physically and characteristically, but as I said the situation became complicated. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor and needed surgery. He is fine now, but there was some anxiety on his part about the process that I determined would undermine the partnership." Brennan was done talking about herself. "Do you have children?"

"A daughter who is now fully grown and FINALLY out of college. She is following her father's footsteps into the law profession." Tempe smiled warmly at her young namesake. "I went the traditional route: fell in love in college, married, daughter, midlife crisis affairs (his), separation and finally divorce." Tempe shook her head. She didn't know why, but she felt that she must be completely honest with the stranger who had her name. "I'm sure my issue with alcohol and working in two locations had an effect on the marriage. His need to find comfort in the arms of nubile young women was to be expected"

"Anthropologically speaking in this society it is very consistent: men in their forties or fifties feeling age setting in and finding the attentions of younger females hard to resist." Brennan wasn't just referring to Tempe's husband.

"He is getting married again and I have been sober for … well a long time." She didn't feel she needed to point out that she had fallen off the wagon a little over a year ago. It was only one night or two. She was back totaling the tea and doing fine give or take a YEARNING to three several times a day. "And I am in a sort of relationship with a detective in Montreal." She smiled again thinking Ryan would just love to meet this young Dr. Brennan. "Still hurts," Tempe said more to herself wondering if she would ever get over that.

Brennan looked down and then back up quickly. "I imagine it does." Brennan was keenly aware of how painful it was to see a man turn his affections on another.

"So you just finished a case," Tempe said brightly trying to change the mood of the conversation.

"We did. I am sorry you can't meet the rest of my team. We are quick an efficient unit."

"I would like that very much."

As if on cue, Cam walked in. "Dr. Brennan," she said thinking that Brennan was alone.

Both women turned toward her and said "Yes."

Cam was startled. "I'm sorry I didn't know there was someone with you."

Brennan and Tempe stood up. Brennan spoke. "Dr. Camille Sayoran, please allow me to introduce you to Dr. Temperance Brennan."

Cam expression was completely puzzled.

"She is a forensic anthropologist who works in Montreal and Charlotte."

Cam was still speechless.

Tempe stepped over to her and extended her hand. "Don't think about it too much," she said warmly.

Cam extended her hand and shook it warily. "This is quite a coincidence."

"There are no coincidences," Brennan and Tempe said at the same time.

Cam was confused but didn't want to pursue it. "Right, well ... I am going to leave this for you, Dr. Brennan ... uh, my Dr. Brennan and let you know that your vacation time has been approved."

"Thank you, Dr. Sayoran."

Cam turned her attention back to Tempe. "It was nice meeting you." She cocked her head. "I wonder if you were why the name Temperance Brennan kept coming up on my searches when I was looking to replace my Dr. Brennan when she went to Maluku."

"Could be. I'm sorry we didn't connect. I would very much like to work in a facility as fine as this one."

Cam smiled. "Open invitation, Dr. Brennan. Please join us whenever you have time. If you are anything like our Dr. Brennan we would be lucky to have you."

"Thank you, Dr. Saroyan, I may take you up on that."

Cam left. But Tempe had an idea. "Where are you going on vacation?"

"I was going to Chile."

"The dig there? I have heard that they are near the end of that. Why don't you come to Montreal with me. I'm being called back early for a serial murder case. Nine sets of remains were discovered. I could certainly use your help. You could stay with me. We'd be a force to be reckoned with."

Brennan thought for a moment. "Yes, I would find that most interesting."

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

"Where the hell is Bones?" Booth barked at Cam.

"Montreal."

"What's she doing up there?"

"She's on vacation."

"Vacation?"

"Yes. Working with ... well ... um ... she is working with the _Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale_ for the province of Quebec.

"Why didn't she tell me?"

"Can't answer that for you, Booth." Cam had a lot of answers for him but none that he probably wanted to her.

"Well I have a dead body, what am I supposed to do?"

"Guess we'll have to send in the second string, huh?" Cam was annoyed.

"No flesh on this one Cam ... skeletal remains found in the basement of a Pet Shop in Georgetown."

"I'm sure we'll manage until she gets back."

Booth hung up after giving Cam the location. He was confused. Vacation? Montreal? And she didn't tell him. Bones would never do that. He tried her cell again. No answer. Why would she go out of town, hell why would she take vacation and not tell him. They were partners for Pete's sake.

"Seeley?" Hannah called to him. "What's wrong. You look ... I don't know ... worried."

"Yeah, Bones is in Montreal."

"It's beautiful up there."

"But she didn't tell me she was going."

"She's a big girl, Seeley."

"Yeah, ... yeah right." Booth sloughed into his jacket and grabbed his keys. He was almost out the door when Hannah stopped him.

"No kiss good-bye? Have a nice day? See you tonight? Love you?"

He flashed her a smile, repeated all her suggested sentiments with very little affect and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. His mind was on Montreal and why his partner would leave so secretly.

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

A/N: Anyone interested in seeing this play out?


	2. Chapter 2

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**By LizD**

A/N: Not the resounding PLEASE CONTINUE that I hoped for, but it was posted on Thanksgiving Morning so people were probably busy. For the nineteen of you who did comment or alert this story, I hope to do it justice. Maybe we can pick up a few other followers alone the way.

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

Dr. Temperance "Tempe" Brennan felt that Dr. Temperance "Bren" Brennan was more in need of an older sister than anyone she had ever known. Luckily Tempe was experienced in that area and was willing to take on the task if Brennan would let her.

Brennan had shared her story from her awkward childhood, to the disappearance of her parents, to her brother leaving, to foster care, college, graduate school, post-graduate work and finally her job with the Jeffersonian and consulting with the FBI. Brennan relayed the discovery of her mother's remains, reconnecting with her brother, the return of her father and their rocky road back to some version of a relationship through death threats and a murder trial all in a very dispassionate, clinical, matter-of-fact manner. Tempe recognized the mask needed to hide the hurt - not from Tempe, but from Brennan herself. Tempe listened to her story in amazement and with as much empathy as she thought Brennan would allow. The only subject that Brennan avoided was that of Booth - the partner - and the huge role he had played in the past several years. Tempe couldn't get a handle on him as yet but felt that the hurt was a lot closer to the surface. A trip north of the border was going to be good for Brennan.

Brennan wasn't dominating the conversation but she did have a captivated audience. Just over an hour into the flight, it was Tempe's turn to share her story. By time they had reached Tempe's condo she was almost done. Tempe left out the big bits (particularly the ugly bits) about Ryan. Brennan listened and asked a few questions for clarification. Mostly she was interested in the cases that Tempe alluded to.

Neither one was showing any sides of being tired nor had they run out of topics. They were getting to the GOOD stuff, in Brennan's mind: the science. Like teen aged girls at slumber party they ate pizza, popcorn, ice cream, drank soda and dished cases until close to dawn. Of course unlike teenagers there was no giggling, no boy talk, no hair styling, just good conversation that anyone not in the anthropology field would have a clue about. By time the sun came up there were all talked out but they had discovered the most significant way in which they were alike: they cared about finding justice for the victims they worked for.

Tempe offered to let her sleep in and would catch her up on the case in the afternoon, but Brennan refused. In fact Brennan was eager to get to work. They showered and stopped for coffee and breakfast on the way to the lab.

Tempe's lab was at the Édifice Wilfrid-Derome in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district just east of _centre-ville_ in Montreal. The Laboratoire des sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale (LSJML) occupied the top two floors, the Bureau du coroner was on the eleventh and the morgue was in the basement. The remaining floors belonged to the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) (aka the police for the entire province of Quebec).

Tempe was arranging a badge for Brennan with security when Lieutenant-Detective Andrew Ryan strolled in. He spotted Tempe right away and was mildly intrigued by her companion. He was more interested in Tempe herself. It was always a toss-up as to how she would greet him when she returned: sex kitten or vicious tiger. It didn't matter how much he stayed in contact with her while she was gone, her attitude ebbed and flowed from whatever she had cooked up in her head. This round in Montreal he had decided to correct her impression that he was out catting around every night; picking up different women. It was time to set the record straight about his STUD REP and move the relationship to the next level. Easier said than done, he feared. Tempe was a tough customer and would forever hold her husband's infidelity against all men. Ryan knew Tempe was opposed to any kind of public display so he had to maneuver her into a private meeting to properly demonstrate how much her absence was noticed.

"Dr. Brennan," he called over to her about to make some remark about her being back coupling it with a comment about her backside. Probably not the best approach, but it was familiar. Both women turned toward him. He bit back his remark. The woman standing next to her was stunningly beautiful more so because she didn't act like she knew it. Ryan crossed over to the women.

"Hello," he flashed her a charmed smile that netted a Tempe eye roll and put out his hand. "Bonjour, Lieutenant-détective Andrew Ryan, Section des crimes contre la personne, Sûreté du Québec, Enchanté."

Brennan placed her hand gently in his and responded in perfect - if a little formal - French. "Bonjour, Lieutenant-détective Ryan. Je m'appelle Docteur Temperance Brennan. Je suis un anthropologue légal avec l'Institution de Jeffersonian à Washington D.C."

Tempe smiled slyly as Ryan glanced her way with a shocked expression. "Kinda freaky isn't, big guy?"

"There are two?" He pressed Brennan's hand warmly. "And people say there is no God."

Brennan opened her mouth to comment on the existence of God, but was quickly reminded of Booth and his constant reminding that some people believe and that she should be respectful of that. "It's a pleasure to meet you Detective Ryan."

"Please, call me Andy, everyone does - except Tempe of course."

Brennan nodded and smiled warmly back at him. "You may call me Brennan as not to be confusing."

"So I would ask how you two met, but I'm just going to go with SMALL WORLD."

"Actually it was because of how similar our names and professions were that prompted Dr. Brennan." She glanced at her quickly. "Tempe," she corrected. "To seek me out on her layover at Dulles."

"You don't say." His smiled and put out his arm for Brennan to link with his. "Well OUR Doc Brennan needs to get her little fanny to work, so why don't you allow me to show you around our fair city whilst she does her thing." He started to lead Brennan away.

"I'm here to help," Brennan explained. "I understand you have several bodies to identify. That is what I do for the Jeffersonian: identify bodies that are too badly decomposed for traditional identification processes. I am quite capable and working together we - Tempe and I - could cut the time in half."

"Of course." Ryan looked at Tempe. "Twins separated at birth or did you clone yourself?"

Tempe loved that Ryan was getting nowhere charming Brennan.

"For the past six years I have been partnered with a Special Agent at the FBI and we have been working major crimes, typically homicides. Our solve rate is near one hundred percent."

Ryan flashed his baby blues at her and released her arm. "Then we are lucky to have you to assist in our little problem. Maybe we should get your partner up here too."

An expression of dread passed over Brennan's face. Tempe saw it and immediately intervened.

"OK Ryan," Tempe stepped in. "Back off. Brennan is a guest and shall be treated as such. Best behavior, OK?"

"My honor to serve." He gave a sharp nod. "It would also be my honor to escort the lovely Doctors Brennan to dinner this evening."

"We'll let you know, Ryan." Tempe directed Brennan toward the elevator. "Bren, I'll show you were you can store your stuff and we can get to work."

Brennan turned back to Ryan. "It was a pleasure meeting you."

"And you." Brennan moved toward the elevator giving Tempe and Ryan a moment of public privacy.

Tempe whispered in his ear. "Get your mind out of the gutter, boy."

"Too late, cupcake," he whispered back. He grabbed her hand low so no one would noticed. "Missed you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! Tell me she's staying at a hotel."

"Guest room."

"I hope she's not a light sleeper." He leaned in about to give her a kiss on the cheek but thought better of it. "I'll see you for dinner."

"We'll see. We might be pretty tired. Stayed up all night." Ryan's eyes twinkled again. "Talking, Ryan. We were talking. She's a sweet kid."

"Got news for you lamb chop, she ain't no kid."

The elevator arrived and Brennan stepped in. Tempe made double time to catch up with her. They were alone again in the elevator.

"So that is Ryan?"

"Yes." Tempe couldn't help the grin she had plastered on her face.

"He seems very attentive. How good is he at his job?"

"Very good. Don't tell him I said this, but he has some amazing instincts and I should listen to him more often than I do."

"So you and Ryan are ... are a couple."

Tempe wondered that too. "At the moment we are on-again, but I wouldn't take a bet on how long it will last this time."

"But you work together."

"Not as partners ... at least not like you and your partner ... but yes we often work the same cases. We work well together."

"Is that because you are having sex?"

Tempe turned toward her quickly amazed at the question. "No." She answered too simply. "We seem to be able to maintain a working relationship in spite of what is going on between us personally."

"I see."

"It's probably why we are still trying to make a personal relationship work."

"I see."

Tempe wondered if she really did. "He doesn't have a bit of a reputation for being a ... well, a flirt. If he offends you in anyway please don't hesitate to put him in his place. He will respect you for it."

"I wouldn't want to cause a rift between you two."

"You couldn't. We can cause our own rifts."

They were silent for a moment. Then Brennan asked. "Should I move to a hotel?"

Tempe laughed and snuck her arm through Brennan's. "Completely not necessary. It's better to keep men hungry."

"In my experience if a man is denied his mean - to extend your metaphor which I'm not too comfortable with - they will find somewhere else to eat."

Tempe nodded. "True, but if his tastes change so easily, isn't it better that he go somewhere else?"

Brennan considered that notion but had no answer.

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

Booth barged into the lab. Dr. Clark Edison, Vincent Nigel Murray and Wendell Bray were studying the remains.

"Where is Bones?" he barked again, knowing full well that she was on vacation. The squints knew the question was directed at them, but they didn't look up. "Hello? Anyone listening to me?"

"Kind of hard not to, Booth." Angela called from the upper platform.

"Where is Bones?"

"Vacation."

"Why isn't she picking up her phone?"

"Hello? Vacation."

"What about this case?" He nodded to the remains on the table.

"You have three ... count them ... three of the best guys we have on the case. Hodgins is studying the particulates and Cam is doing her thing. I have a reconstruction for you, if you care to see it and we think we have a time of death and murder weapon. The world doesn't come to an end when Brennan goes on vacation, Booth."

"Right."

Booth climbed the stairs feeling suitably scolded all eyes followed most were shooting darts. The phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out expecting to see BONES on the caller ID. He must have left fifteen or twenty messages for her none of which had been returned. Instead it had a picture of Hannah. He sent the call to voice mail. He stood at near attention as Angela went over her findings thus far. There wasn't much to go on. He took a deep breath turned to Angela.

"How are you, Angela? Things with the baby OK?"

"The baby's fine. I'm fine. Hodgins's on cloud nine." She took pity on poor Booth. "How are you? Things with Hannah ...?"

"Fine. We're fine." He glanced away and then turned back. "She's good for me Angela: smart, funny, full of life. She's easy to be with. She loves me and isn't afraid to show it."

"That's great. Sounds like you two are a perfect match." Her tone was cold and dry.

"What does that mean?" He got defensive.

"Just that you fell pretty hard for her pretty quickly." She cocked one hip out to the side which was getting harder to do with the additional baby weight. "I guess I was wrong about you."

"Wrong?"

"I thought you were in love with Brennan."

Guilt washed over his face but he tried to push it away. "She doesn't want me. She doesn't love me."

"If that's what you need to tell yourself to help you sleep at night with Hannah, then by all means keep deluding yourself."

"It wasn't going to work, Angela."

"Maybe not, but did you need to destroy the friendship too? That was bad Booth. Really, Really bad. Mean, unfair and uncalled for." She dismissed him. "Go see Cam. I'm sure she has something for you."

Booth started to slink out of the office. He turned back. His voice was gentle and calm. "Where's Bones?"

Angela considered her options. "Montreal."

"Is she coming back?"

Angela shrugged.

Booth nodded and left. He wondered what he should do.

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

Brennan pulled her phone from her pocket. It had been turned off for the past forty eight hours. There were twenty six calls from Booth, two from Angela, one from Cam and two from her father. She didn't listen to any of the messages and turned the phone back off. There was at least six more hours of work before they were to meet Detective Ryan for dinner. As much as she was enjoying the work, she missed her crew and fought the desire to send everything back to the Jeffersonian.

**x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x**

A/N: Just another teaser chapter before things get interesting. Still interested?


	3. Chapter 3

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 3**

**By LizD**

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

_Tempe's Condo in Montreal_

Brennan was in the shower washing off a particularly long day. They had cause of death and relative time of death. All nine victims seemed to have been killed at the same time. The identifications were slow going: women, ages from fifteen to fifty-five. All had given birth. They had had no dental work done so ID though dental records would be impossible. Brennan noticed that all had suffered from chronic malnutrition and dehydration. None of the victims matched exactly with the group of missing person files they had to work with. They would have to expand their search. There was something odd about the women that Brennan couldn't quite put her finger on. Something they all had in common, at least Brennan thought they did, but she needed to find out what that was. If this were her case and she were at her lab in Washington, she would have continued to work through the night. But it was Tempe's lab and she called it quits around seven.

Ryan had re-extended the invitation to dinner. Both women were exhausted but there was no food in the house. Tempe cleared it with Brennan first and suggested that it be a quick supper at Hurley's.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan arrived just as Tempe was finished dressing. She buzzed him in. He had clearly gone home, showered, shaved and changed into his finest blue shirt (the one she said complemented his eyes so well) and his best pair of jeans and sneakers. Same old Bomber Jacket, but it looked like it had been cleaned or at least wiped down. Clearly he was trying to make an impression.

"Very nice, Ryan." She smirked as she opened the door for him.

"A man does his best with what he has to work with." He knew he looked good and liked that Tempe noticed.

"Should I leave you and the young Dr. Brennan alone?"

"Why would you do that?" He leaned in closer to kiss her but stopped before his lips met hers. "I didn't dress for her." He stood back and took in Tempe's attire. Tight black jeans that must have needed a shoehorn and a bottle of oil to get into, a black silk blouse that bloused in all the right places and opened low enough to reveal a lilac lace camisole. Purple was his favorite color for lingerie. Her make-up was understated but clearly date worthy. She was also wearing the perfume he had given her last birthday. "You didn't dress for the second self either." He leaned back. "You missed me too, huh?"

Tempe shook her head but her sly grin gave her away.

"What say we give Mini-Me a quarter and send her to the movies." Ryan whispered in Tempe's ear before kissing her cheek.

"Best behavior, Ryan," she warned.

"Scout's honor." He took the opportunity to kiss her properly and was rewarded in kind. "Oh yeah, you missed me."

"Don't let it go to your head." Her glare suggested he not respond to that.

Instead he slapped her ass playfully and took a seat at the kitchen table. "Does she live up to your good name?"

"She's better than I am." She silently offered a beer which he had left there the night before when she stood him up.

"Reserve the right to form my own opinion." He took the beer and gestured at returning her house keys but she shook him off. That gave him hope.

"Her science is dead on and the tests she wants to run I never would have thought of. She wants to send a lot back to the Jeffersonian for the lab work and reconstruction through something called the _**Angelator**_, but I convinced her that we could do it here. But I must say I'm impressed so far. She looks like she is working very slowly - staring at the bones like they are going to speak to her - but the things that she discovered that I missed were ... well amazing."

"She's amazing, I get it."

"She's got a lot of questions for you too, son. Wants to go back out to the crime scene. She is used to being in on the questioning of suspects too."

"Oh no ... not another one." He took a long hit from his beer.

"Can't handle two of us?"

"Can barely handle the one I've got. Please tell me she follows instructions better than you do."

Tempe shrugged. "What did you find out?"

"Is she really on the case with us?" Tempe nodded. "Then let's save it for dinner conversation so I don't have to say it twice."

Tempe shrugged agreement. "How's Lily?"

He frowned and looked down. "Back in rehab. I don't expect her back in Montreal until the spring, if then. Apparently her counselor doesn't think that traveling back and forth is helping."

"I'm sorry. I really thought she was doing better." She put her hand on his.

"Yeah, me too. Guess it's me who's going to need to start heading to Nova Scotia every other weekend."

Tempe tensed at that notion and removed her hand. She never discussed Ryan's relationship with Lily's mother. The aborted attempt a reconciliation a year or so ago ended the budding relationship with Tempe. She was dumped. Ryan had claimed it was all for Lily, but in Tempe's mind she was dumped. It was only recently that Tempe had decided that they could date again and only then after repeated requests. Tempe wouldn't tolerate Lutecia as a steady factor in Ryan's life and possibly his place to stay when he was out of town. Tempe wouldn't be 'the other woman' for any man. She would rather be alone. She walked away from Ryan to take the chair in the living room.

Ryan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He knew that would be her response - say nothing but get pissed. She would also imagine all kinds of things. He came over and squatted down next to her taking both her hands in his. "I shouldn't have brought it up so casually. I'm sorry."

Tempe just nodded but the smile that was on her face moments ago and her joy at seeing him again was gone.

"Lutecia is not an issue. I won't be seeing her. I won't be communicating with her. Lily barely talks to her. I have a friend, a male friend, who I have known for years. He has a wife and three kids and a large room over the garage that he will let me use when I need it. It's big enough for two."

Tempe nodded again. "Sounds good."

"T, I want you to come with me - when you're in town. I want Lily to get to know you."

"Hawaii wasn't enough?"

"Hawaii was just a start. Did you know that Katy and Lily are still emailing?"

Tempe shook her head.

"Your daughter made quite an impression. I don't think they are BFFs or anything but I think Katy will be a good influence on her." He paused for a moment. "Please, Tempe. I want her to see us together. To know how big a part of my life you are."

"I'll think about it."

The door to the bathroom opened and Brennan slipped out into the guest room.

"Think about it, don't come to any conclusions without talking to me, OK?"

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan pulled her phone in to recharge it and turned it on to check the messages. Before it had a chance to completely boot, the phone rang. BOOTH was in the Caller ID. Reluctantly she answered. She wasn't punishing him, she just didn't want to talk to him.

"Hello?"

_Bones, what the hell are you doing in Montreal?_

"I took some vacation time. I met a colleague from the _Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale_ for the province of Quebec. We got to talking and decided that I would like to view the facilities. We are here in Montreal and working through a case. Nine victims, all female. It's rather interesting." She chose not to get into the details of who the colleague was for obvious reasons, one being the Booth would have nothing nice to say about another forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan. She didn't realize how cryptic she was being with gender. Booth naturally got the wrong impression.

Booth didn't care about the case or the nine victims. He cared about why Bones took off and left without so much as a good-bye. And he cared about who this colleague was. Booth knew that if Bones ever truly left, ended the partnership, quit working with him it would be for science and there would be a guy involved. Maybe this colleague could offer her more than death and destruction. This colleague clearly spoke her language. Maybe he would get her to consider stepping outside her shell, taking a risk, taking a chance on something more than science. Booth had laid all the ground work, how dare some Dr. Right sweep in and benefit from his years of patient work?

_We have a case right here in Washington, Bones._

"I'm sorry, Booth. It must have come in after I left. I will contact Cam and see what I can do from here."

_I don't need you to see what you can do from there; I need my partner here._

"I expect to return in five days, if I can wrap things up."

_Bones._

"I'm sorry, Booth. I don't have time to talk. We're headed out to dinner. Please have all the files sent to me and I will review them tonight and get back to you by morning."

_Bones!_

"Good bye, Booth." She paused. "Say hello to Hannah." She hung up. It wasn't a conscious choice, but the last comment was meant to explain her reason for leaving and her reason for not coming back as ordered. Booth had been distracted and disinterested in his partnership with Brennan since Hannah arrived in Washington. Brennan knew that it was only a matter of time before she had to move on herself, and the partnership with Booth would naturally dissolve.

She called Cam immediately upon hanging up and made the same request for the files. She knew Booth wasn't going to send them. Cam assured her that they were doing fine and didn't need Brennan to work on her vacation. Brennan insisted.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

_**Hurley's Irish Pub**_

Hurley's was loud and not the kind of food Brennan was used to eating. There was very little on the menu she could eat. She enjoyed Ryan and his playful way with Tempe and by extension her. He was very open with what he had found at the crime scene and was willing to take Brennan out there whenever she wanted. It could have been his age, it could have been his background (which he shared openly with Brennan), it could have been his personality but he seemed less intense than Booth. He was more comfortable in his own skin. He was comfortable around Tempe and Brennan, two women who were clearly his superior in education and IQ. He listened to the two anthropologists talk and asked questions when he needed to in a very unaffected manner. Recently, Booth had taken to not wanting to hear Brennan's drawn out explanations and became impatient to the point of rude trying to cut her off.

Ryan saw little in common between the Doctors Brennan. Yes, they had the same job and dedication to finding the facts. Yes, they had the same name. But that was pretty much where it ended. Brennan was literal to the point of ridiculousness. Ryan found that charming, but had to believe it could get old. Maybe he was just used to working with Tempe. They had a short hand way of speaking and being with each other. He wondered if it was the same for Brennan and her partner.

"So," he asked ordering a second beer for himself and Brennan. "Your partner is FBI. Do you know Bryon McMahon?" Tempe looked at him wondering where he got that name. "The plane crash," he explained the connection.

McMahon was an FBI Agent that Ryan had worked with when he lost his partner in a plane crash in the North Carolina mountains. Tempe worked the incident as well and nearly lost her job, her credibility and her life - another story to fill four hundred pages.

"I believe I have heard the name," Brennan answered. "But I don't know him."

"He knows you and your partner, Seeley Booth."

"Oh," she answered wearily.

"Guess he doesn't know you on sight, because he thought Tempe was you."

"What?" Tempe interjected.

"He met you, remember? Later, when he heard this Booth guy was partnered with Temperance Brennan he naturally thought it was you." He looked over at Brennan who was looking very uncomfortable. "I made a call to check you out." He shrugged. "Sorry, habit."

Brennan didn't like being checked out, but she understood. Booth would have done the same.

Tempe apologized for Ryan, but Brennan didn't need or want one. Brennan offered to pay for dinner, but Ryan wouldn't hear of it. She claimed that she was exhausted and needed to sleep. Brennan refused the escort home and headed out on her own.

When she was safely out of ear shot Tempe looked a question at Ryan. "What?" he protested. "I like her. She's smart. Maybe a little too smart. But she's holding something back."

"About the case?"

"No ... something about her partner." He turned so he was facing Tempe. "So, was I on my best behavior?"

"Other than checking her out behind my back - yes, very good."

He leaned in. "Shouldn't I be rewarded for that?"

She patted him on the head. "Good boy."

"Pain in the ass, Brennan - sorry Tempe ... need to keep the names straight."

"Dance with me." Tempe offered.

"How about a long walk home?"

"That will work too."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

_**Booth's Apartment in Washington**_

Hannah ran into Booth in the hallway of their apartment. She was just returning from a three day trip with the President. He was on his way out with a bag.

"Seeley?" She was shocked to see him. "You going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I left a note explains everything. Big case in Canada. I'll be back in a day or two."

"You really need to leave right now?" She leaned in and tried to kiss him. He pulled away.

"I'm going to be late for my plane." He continued down the hall.

"Seeley?"

He didn't respond. The note had no explanation. Hannah was confused. She called Brennan but it went straight to voice-mail.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N:** Thanks for continuing on with this story. Comments are nice.


	4. Chapter 4

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 4**

**By LizD**

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

_Tempe's Condo in Montreal_

Brennan had gotten very little sleep. She never did like sleeping in a strange bed. That was not what kept her awake: there was work to be done. And of course the cat (whatever her name was) was locked out of the master bedroom and started scratching at Brennan's door around three just after Brennan had turned out the light to get some sleep.

Brennan had worked most of the evening after dinner on the case notes that Cam had sent. Booth of course had sent nothing - no surprise. She heard Tempe and Ryan come in just after midnight. They were trying to be quiet but the house - indeed the city was deadly still - not like Washington. Brennan didn't mind but put on her headphones to give them privacy. She actually liked Tempe and Ryan as a couple from the little she had seen of them together. Tempe could be a bit harsh with him and Ryan was a little too playful; he seemed to tease her to get a reaction. But if they found some measure of enjoyment in each other's company it was not Brennan's place to question it. She clearly was no model for interpersonal or romantic relationships.

Their sex made her envious. Brennan hadn't been sexually active in years and she had to question why. With the proper sexual partner she found the experience most exhilarating. Finding the proper partner had always been an issue. Some men wanted more of an emotional connection (like Sully) and others couldn't understand that she didn't (even if they didn't). There were still a few men she could contact when the mood struck her, but it hadn't in a while.

In the past year at least - before Maluku - Booth was definitely a factor in her choice of celibacy but she had yet to really appreciate why he would be. He wasn't an option (or so she had presumed). But yet, there was the book she wrote and deleted. It was certainly not standard fair for a Temperance Brennan novel. Her fans would have hated it, yet there was something enticing and terrifying about the couple she created in that story. It was total fantasy, a fantasy with real names, a fantasy that could blow up in her face and destroy the modicum of peace that she had made for herself, but a fantasy that she indulged on occasion - more often than she cared to admit. She missed those happily married club owners who were about to be parents but not enough to take a real risk with Booth when he suggested that they should _take a chance_. Instead she ran away, ran away to gain perspective.

While she was in Maluku her attitude had changed. She was willing to put her fears aside. She had come to realize that more could be lost by not risking. Of course now it was completely moot. Booth had moved on and there was no going back regardless of his relationship with Hannah. Whether it worked out or fizzled as so many relationships do, there was no going back for Booth and Brennan. Now the partnership was in jeopardy. Her biggest issue had been trust, and he broke her trust. He implied that he loved her, had loved her from the beginning, yet he had denied it and ignored it for six years - five of which they were partnered. When he final spoke his feelings and was denied not because she didn't love him, but because she did - he moved on. Like throwing a light switch, he moved on – wholly and completely. He didn't look at her they way he used to. He didn't talk to her the way he used to. She didn't fault him. He asked, she said no, he moved on. It was really rather pragmatic of him. He needed more, he needed love in his life and he went out and found it. Sadly he moved on from the partnership as well, if not technically, emotionally. Her only request was that they continue to work together, he agreed, but his heart wasn't into it any more. Yes, she was the one who decided on Maluku, but he came back from Afghanistan a different man with Hannah in tow. It was becoming clear to Brennan, that his 'take a chance' request was more of an ultimatum. Her 'no' lost her everything.

Evolution - it's a law.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan got up around five-thirty, found her way to the kitchen, the coffee and the cat food. Birdie was happy. Ryan slipped out of the bedroom shortly before six. He was trying to sneak out. He didn't make it.

"Good morning, Detective Ryan," Brennan called to him as he tiptoed past the kitchen.

He grinned like a teenager. "Didn't want to wake you," he said in a hushed tone.

"I didn't sleep much last night," she nodded to the coffee pot. "But neither did you."

Ryan liked Brennan. He couldn't help it. He liked women who spoke their mind, didn't play games. He also liked that he couldn't charm her. Taking a much needed sip of coffee, "Mmmmm," he swallowed. "Where there's one more difference between you and Tempe. She can't make coffee to save her soul - but don't tell her I said that."

"The filter needed cleaning," Brennan said matter-of-factly still keeping her eyes on her monitor. "Thank you for dinner last night."

"You barely ate." He stood behind her looking at her screen.

"I'm a vegetarian."

"Well the Irish aren't known for their vegetarian cuisine." He leaned down to get a better look. "Is that one of our bodies?"

Brennan was reviewing an X-ray that Cam had sent. "No, this is from a case in Washington."

He pointed to the screen. "That's not a gunshot wound."

"No, it's not." She expanded the image to show that there was an entry and an exit. "But it is a projectile of some sort, Detective."

"Please ... I'm half dressed and you probably heard some things last night that are typically reserved for the most intimate of friends, call me Andy, OK?"

"OK."

He pulled on his shirt and sat down at the table with his coffee caddy corner from Brennan. "So you really want to go out to the dump site?"

Brennan cringed. She had always hated that expression. It implied that the body, the remains, the victim, that person whose life had been wasted was garbage. She appreciated that cops needed to deal in their own way, but it still unnerved her. "I was under the impression that they were buried."

"Buried, yes ... but no caskets, no head stones, no markers and less than three feet down. This burial wasn't presided over by God."

Brennan was again about to open her mouth to discuss the various burial rituals of various cultures but decided to keep it to herself. "Still, I would like to go out there. Do you have any idea where there women were killed?"

"So you have decided it was murder, not some disease or famine or some other natural disaster."

"It is my opinion that these women did not meet a natural end, but their life was not easy either: malnutrition, dehydration, little or no medical or dental care."

"Sounds like a cult."

"I can't determine that from the remains. But these women do have something else in common. I will know more when we get the DNA results back from the Jeffersonian."

"You sent the tests to Washington?"

"Purely for expediency."

"Right," he smiled. Everyone likes to play in their own backyard. "Tempe will be asleep for hours yet. We could take a ride out there and be back at the lab by eleven."

"Would she be OK with that?"

He nodded. "We'll leave a note. Come on. I'll buy you the best croissant breakfast sandwich you've ever had - vegetarian is their specialty."

"Tempe mentioned that you take great interest in her diet."

Ryan shrugged. "Someone has to take care of her."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth was at _Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale_ for the province of Quebec at little after ten in the morning. His plane was on time, but he got lost on the way to the hotel. He hated the French, their language and their road signs. It was Canada for God's sake, not Paris … speaka-the-English.

He marched up to the security guard and flashed his FBI badge. "Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI, USA, looking for Dr. Temperance Brennan."

The guards were un-phased by his badge or his command attitude. "Is Dr. Brennan expecting you?"

"She will see me."

One guard looked at the other and nodded. The other guard picked up the phone and called. "Dr. LaManche, there is an FBI agent down here to speak with Dr. Brennan … yes, sir ... yes, sir … thank you." He hung up and glanced at his mate before fixing Booth with a glare. "Dr. LaManche will be down in a moment. Please wait over there."

Booth moved away reluctantly. So **the colleague** was Dr. LaManche; the one that Bones found interesting enough to leave him for. He probably spoke French. Booth couldn't sit patiently so he paced. About thirty minutes later, an older man (in his sixties) dressed in a lab coat approached Booth.

"Agent Booth?" he said in heavily accented English. "I am Dr. LaManche, Dr. Brennan's … how you say? … her boss."

"Boss?" Booth was shocked. Not a lover but a boss? Bones had taken a job in Quebec. What the hell? "Well I'm her partner," Booth stated.

"I do not know much of her exploits when she is not in Québec." He stepped back. "Please, if you will follow me. Dr. Brennan is in the morgue."

Booth took an audible gasp.

"Sorry," LaManche corrected. "She is working in the morgue." He pushed the button for the elevator. "You are not squeamish at the sight of dead bodies, are you, Mousier Booth."

"No." Booth had about a thousand questions, but would let Bones answer them. Except one: "She works here?"

"Oh yes. We are most grateful to have her if only part time."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan and Ryan were on their way back to the LSJML. It was productive out at the burial site. Tempe had called and reminded Brennan that they needed more soil samples. Brennan was able to find what they needed and discovered what she thought were tire tracks made in the mud and then frozen over. In such a remote location it was reasonable to think they were made by the person burying the women. Ryan was going to get his crime scene unit back out there (after ripping them a new one for missing as much as they did the first time). Ryan really didn't like going to a crime scene without a forensic expert.

On their way back Brennan received several calls but none were able to be completed due to the remoteness of the location. Two at least were from Booth. Brennan was actually getting annoyed at his persistence.

"Partners can be very trying at times," Ryan said after she put her phone away.

"The partnership is changing and we are…" She was about to say 'feeling each other up' again but knew that was wrong but couldn't remember what Booth had corrected the expression to.

"You don't have to explain. While I have never had a female partner, I can appreciate that sex or lack of sex can complicate any relationship … even a partnership."

Brennan was puzzled. "Booth has a habit of saying things to shock a suspect to get him or her to reveal something that they wouldn't normally reveal."

Ryan laughed. "You caught me. Sorry, another bad habit. I have a few."

Brennan turned back toward the road. She looked miserable.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm a pretty good listener too." Ryan smiled warmly at her.

"It's not really any of your concern, is it?"

"No," he said honestly. "But I can still listen, and I'm very good at keeping confidences."

Brennan nodded.

"It's just that I see something that is bothering you."

Brennan nodded again.

"Would you feel more comfortable if I shared something personal about myself?"

"Booth has suggested that that is how trust is built."

"Can't argue with him there." Ryan gave her a quick glance. "I'm in love with Tempe …have been for years … I haven't told her that, of course."

"Why not?"

"She's not ready to hear it."

"Do all men make the same assumption about women, or is it just the fear of being rejected that prevents them from being honest?"

"Are you really asking me?"

"Yes, I'm asking." She was at her deadpan seriousness.

"Fear of rejection is high on the list. But higher on the list is speaking too soon." He glanced at her again. "Too soon can ruin everything."

"But if it's truly love, shouldn't it withstand bad timing."

Ryan laughed. "You would think so, wouldn't you? But women get funny ideas in their head. They think too much."

"That is a grand generalization."

"Maybe, but true to my experience."

"If you had expressed your feelings to Tempe, and she said no, would you," Brennan swallowed hard. "Would you move on?"

Ryan thought for a moment. The situation she proposed was not unfamiliar to him. "I suppose I would have to eventually or risk looking like a jerk chasing around after someone who doesn't want me."

"Eventually."

"Yeah, might even go so far as to pick up with someone else to prove that I was over her." He wiped a hand over his face. "Been there, done that."

"Excuse me?"

"I took up with a woman I used to know a long time ago – the mother of a child I didn't know I had for twenty plus years." He stopped and gave her a sidelong look. "Tempe didn't tell you this?"

"She told me that you were in an on-again/off-again relationship but not the details."

"Well," Ryan continued. "I reconciled with this woman for my daughter's sake and it effectively ended whatever Tempe and I had going on - which was tentative at best. Part of my motivation was to let Tempe know that I had options, that she couldn't keep me waiting forever."

"What happened?"

"It was five months of hell, and I went crawling back to Tempe begging for another chance."

"And you think that proves you love her?"

"Don't have to prove it. I know what I feel when I'm with her and without her. But Tempe does not forgive easily. So you see if I told her now that I loved her, she would run for the hills. We need to rebuild the trust."

Brennan shook her head. "It's a game."

Ryan laughed out loud. "It's a war with no winners."

"Then it's pointless."

"Not at all. It's the only thing worth fighting for."

Brennan considered his statement but didn't know if she could agree with him. "If Tempe had told you to break up with your daughter's mother, would you have done it?"

"In a heartbeat."

Brennan turned to look out the window.

He waited a long moment and didn't speak until she knew she wasn't going to. "So, your partner has someone new in his life?"

Brennan turned back to him. "Are you guessing again?"

Ryan shrugged a nod.

"You are very good at your job, Detective Ryan." Brennan fixed her eyes on the road. She was done talking. Ryan had his answer and didn't need to pursue it any more.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth was shown into the morgue. There was a woman dressed in scrubs with a mask leaning over a set of remains. It wasn't Bones. She was blonde and very thin. She did not look up when he entered. Booth waited for a long moment and shifted his position often to get her attention.

"I'm sorry Agent Booth," she said through her mask. "I will be right with you."

"I was told that Dr. Brennan would be in here."

She stood up, pulled her mask free revealing her face and slight smile. She was about fifteen years older than Bones but the same blue eyes. "Yes, I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan, may I help you?"

Booth was speechless.

"Are you alright Agent Booth? May I get you a glass of water? Would you like to sit down?"

"I don't understand."

Tempe laughed. "I'm sorry." She pulled off her gloves. "I couldn't help myself. I realize that I am not the Temperance Brennan you were looking for – your partner - but my name is Temperance Brennan. The one you are looking for is on her way back from the burial site with Detective Ryan. She should be here in an hour."

Booth still shook his head and sunk into a nearby chair.

"Yes, Mr. Booth. There are two of us." Her grin widened. She didn't know why, but felt that giving him that little shock was necessary.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N:** Thanks for reading. Comments are nice.


	5. Chapter 5

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 5**

**By LizD**

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"So you probably have some questions," Tempe offered when Booth looked like he was ready to speak again. "I'm not sure if I have any answers for you."

"Your name is Temperance Brennan and you are a forensic anthropologist," Booth said in his most FBI way,

"Yes."

"But you are in no way related to Joy Keenan, also known as Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist and author, is that correct?"

"I don't know who Joy Keenan is," she said matching his intensity. "I know of another Temperance Brennan and we are both forensic anthropologists and I believe she is an author."

"This is pretty coincidental."

"To be fair, I was here first." She flashed him smile meant to disarm, it didn't. "I was a little shocked myself that we hadn't met before now."

"Ya think."

"Even though it's a small community and I split my time between Montreal and North Carolina, it is reasonable that we have never met." She sat down on the stool near him.

"You have heard of her books, though correct?"

"I don't read much fiction ... at least not fiction with dead bodies in it."

"Right." He was not convinced - of what he needed to be convinced was not clear.

"Apparently Brennan knew about me." Booth looked at her questioningly. "I don't understand why should wouldn't have sought me out."

"I do." He said snidely. "Bones is not what you'd call socially comfortable and she accepts facts regardless of how bizarre they are as a matter of course."

"You call her _**Bones**_?" Tempe asked. "Yes, she said something about that."

"Term of endearment," he said gruffly. "It's her thing … bones … she reads them like a book."

"My specialty as well," Tempe offered. "So, Agent Booth, why are you here?"

Direct and to the point, on that score they are the same. "She left town without telling me." There was too much other information to relay. That was enough.

"So you were worried about her?" Tempe prompted. "Even though you spoke with her and she told you where she was and what she was doing and when she would be back. Yet, you jumped on a plane - to what end?"

Booth felt foolish. "She said there was a case." He nodded over to the remains. "We're partners."

"And I understand you have a case in Washington. If both you and Brennan are here, who is working that case?"

"The squints have it for now."

"Squints?" Tempe bristled and squared her shoulders.

Booth looked slightly shamed. "Term of endearment."

Neither term sounded very endearing to her. In fact they sounded rather condescending. "Maybe it loses something in the translation," Tempe said flatly. Her first impression of Booth was not a good one. "So are you here to lend your expertise to this case or to take your partner back home?"

"If needed, I would like to help," he said sheepishly. "Bones and I work together."

"Really," she said sarcastically as if she knew something that Booth didn't know. Of course she didn't but she suspected that all was not a bed of roses between the partners evidenced by how easily Brennan chose to jump on a plane and leave him behind.

Booth's phone vibrated in his pocket. He stood quickly grateful for an excuse to leave. "I'm sorry I need to take this."

"You should probably head up to the main floor. The reception down here is spotty at best."

"Thank you." Booth snapped open his phone and told whoever was on the end of the line that he would call them right back and snapped his phone closed again. "You said Bones would be back in an hour."

"Give or take."

Booth left quickly and ran up the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator. He was still a bit out of sorts. So Brennan didn't leave for some egg-head scientist – at least not a male one. But she found a twin. Exactly what were the odds of that happening?

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Outside he called Cam back. When they had gotten their business out of the way Cam asked, "Where are you?"

"Montreal."

"You went after Dr. Brennan?" Her voice was very disapproving. "That's going to send the wrong message."

"To who?" He barked back.

"To Dr. Brennan, to Hannah, to anyone who knows what is and IS NOT going on between you three."

"My partner left town -," he started to defend.

"Booth, you haven't given your partner a second thought for months now. I see how you talk to her. You can barely be in the same room with her unless it's to flaunt your new blonde piece of fluff in her face."

"What has she said to you?"

"Who, Dr. Brennan? Booth, you're an idiot."

"Hey!"

"Dr. Brennan would never say an unkind word about you - ever. She would defend you to the gates of hell and beyond. She has even gone so far as to befriend your girlfriend because she loves you so much."

"She doesn't."

"Again I say, Booth you're an idiot. And a fool. And mean. And -"

"I haven't done anything wrong, Camille."

"Or anything right." She exhaled loudly. "Look, I'm going to stay out of it, but you need to get your shit together. Running after her … that's not good. You can't have them both, Booth. You have to choose."

"Both? What are you talking about. Bones is my partner, my work partner and Hannah is my - "

"Even you aren't that dense, Booth" she dismissed his notion. "If you want my advice -"

"I don't."

"I would make up some excuse for being there and get your ass on a plane tonight and get back to your girlfriend – if you want to salvage that relationship."

"What if Bones stays here?"

"The price you pay to play, big boy. You know about gambling and losing. You have lost and lost big time. Pick up what is left of your chips and leave the table. Know when to fold 'em."

"OK, OK. Enough."

"Find a new partner, Booth. For Brennan's sake if not your own."

He hung up without saying good-bye. He looked down at his phone considering calling Hannah. He stuffed his phone in his pocket. Had he really lost Brennan? Was there anything to lose?

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan and Ryan were coming up the walkway when Booth spotted them. They looked very comfortable together. He didn't look like a Squint. He looked like a cop. What had the other Brennan said, she had gone to the burial site with some detective. Great, so she didn't leave him for a squint, she left him for a cop. Booth shook his head. Bones could do whatever and whoever she wanted, she was not his girlfriend.

Brennan noticed him. "Booth," she called to him.

Ryan followed her line of sight and saw a man about ten years his junior pacing on the side walk. He looked agitated, but then again Ryan didn't know the man. "Your partner?" he asked Brennan.

She nodded. "Hey, Booth!"

Booth heard the second call and turned toward her voice. He forced a friendly wave, but it was anything but friendly. They walked toward each other and met at the entrance to the building.

Brennan could tell that the man beside her was of great interest to Booth. "Lieutenant-Detective Andrew Ryan, Sûreté du Québec, Special Agent Seeley Booth, FBI," she introduced the men.

Ryan stuck out his hand and shook Booth's warmly. "Nice to meet you, Booth. Have heard," he flashed a smile at Brennan. "Nothing about you."

Clearly this Ryan guy and Bones had a secret. "I can say the same."

"Detective Ryan was escorting me to the burial site to gather more samples." She held up her bag. "Booth is my partner back in Washington, Andy," Brennan stated. "But I don't know why he's here."

"Well then I will let you to get to it," Ryan said. "I'm sure I have a stack of messages on my desk." He stuck his hand out again to Booth. "If you want a tour of the SQ, I'm on the fourth floor. Always want to extent a welcome to our compadres south of the border."

"I might take you up on that, and if you're ever in DC ..." Booth was forcing himself to be friendly and it showed.

"Will do, Will do," Ryan said. He turned to Brennan, took her hand and kissed it. "Merci Beaucoup, Madame le Docteur Brennan. Vous étiez un beau compagnon pour notre voyage. Vous voir bientôt."

"Merci, Détective. Au revoir."

Booth glared daggers at his back as he retreated into the building. When he turned back to Brennan she had her own set of daggers directed at him.

"Why are you here, Booth?"

"My partner leaves town without a word, I think I have the right to ask questions." He put his hands on his hips. "And what the hell, Bones? There is another Temperance Brennan who is a forensic anthropologist?"

"Yes."

"Seriously?"

"Apparently so."

"And you don't find it strange, or fantastic or just plain odd?"

She shrugged.

"How long have you known that this person existed?"

"I don't know ... a long time."

"You never asked yourself why?"

"Before I discovered that Temperance Brennan was not my real name, I found it a bit interesting, but after I assumed that when my father changed our name, he took Brennan's father's name as he was dead at the time. You said yourself -."

"I know what I said," he had no idea what she was talking about. "Have you asked your father about this?"

"I saw no point to that."

"Bones ... there are two of you in the same field of about five professionals with the same name, don't you find that -."

"There are a lot more than five and it is just a name, Booth. We aren't related. We aren't the same person. This is not science fiction, Booth."

He shook his head in disbelief.

"Why are you here? Cam should have something for you by now." She switched topics.

"She already called."

"And?"

"And, what? "Yeah, good work, great lead. I'll check it out."

"When? How? You're in Montreal."

"When I get back."

"And when will that be?"

"I just got here, Bones."

"I still don't understand why you are here."

Booth couldn't tell her the real reason. He wasn't sure himself. Luckily her cell phone rang and she was off to meet the other Temperance Brennan about the case. Booth was left standing in the middle of the walkway wondering what he should do.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth was still pacing in front of the building when Ryan re-emerged. "Agent Booth, still here?"

"Yes." He tried not to look out of place. "They found something. Bones ... Dr. Brennan, my Dr. Brennan ... I'm sorry this is a bit confusing. Do you know Temperance Brennan? The other one."

Ryan smiled enigmatically. "I have worked with Tempe for years, but have only meet Brennan, your partner, yesterday. She is charming and brilliant. Lucky man to have such a partner. I bet she makes you look good."

Booth nodded just to do something, not that he agreed. The brilliant comment was not a matter of opinion, it was fact. The charming part was a bit up in the air. As for his luck in partners - it was earned - a lot of hard work, not luck that made them work so well together. Except recently - Booth did have some thinking to do. Why weren't they working any more. Was it really his fault? Did the year away just give them too much distance? What Hannah really an issue? If Bones, couldn't accept her - well that was her problem.

"So you met Tempe?" Ryan went on.

"Is that what you call her?"

"I think the agreed upon names - to avoid confusion - are Tempe for the one who works for LSJML and Brennan for the one who works at the Jeffersonian." He grinned. "Of course one is blonde and the other brunette ... all we need now is a red head and we can have ourselves a party."

Booth frowned. Ryan was amused.

"So, I am off to interview a couple of potential witnesses. Gonna grab some lunch on the way, you want to tag along - purely as an observer?"

"Sure." Booth wasn't sure why, but he felt the need to stick around for awhile.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"The DNA proves it," Tempe said. "How did you know?"

"I didn't know," Brennan stated. "But facial features were all too similar."

"So we are talking three generations of women here ... grandmother, mother, daughter, correct?"

"Yes." Brennan was still starting at the DNA results.

"The grandmother was barely twenty five years older than the granddaughter."

"Yes, they were very young when they started breeding." Brennan looked up at Tempe worried that she would take offense at the word 'breeding'.

Tempe wasn't offended. It was becoming increasingly clear that they were not dealing with a modern western civilized family. "But where are the males? And the great grand children?"

Brennan could not answer that. "I would like to send the skulls back to the Jeffersonian for facial reconstruction."

"We have a program here."

"I understand." Brennan hesitated. She didn't want to offend Tempe or the artist they had.

"But you like your person better."

"Angela is an artist with an amazing eye. She knows nothing of this case so she will be objective."

"Ok," Tempe agreed. She wasn't offended. In fact she was envious. Moving back and forth between facilities and being loaned out to others meant that she didn't have a set of people she could rely on. She was always calling in favors or working with subpar equipment.

"And the particulates. We have someone at the Jeffersonian -."

"Say no more, Brennan. Let's pack it all up and send it all to the Jeffersonian."

"I don't mean to offend." Brennan said.

"I would love to see how the Jeffersonian team works."

"Ok. I will make the arrangements for shipping today and we can go down tomorrow."

"Or tonight." Tempe actually was hoping that Brennan would offer the use of the Jeffersonian lab. Not that the facilities at the LSJML were subpar, but she had been impressed with the toys that were available at the Jeffersonian and was anxious to see what they could do. This was a pretty big case and had gotten a bit of press coverage. Finding answers was the first priority - jurisdiction and a pissing contest between the US and Canada were not really what scientists did. She would leave that to the cops.

"Tonight is fine."

"So I met your Agent Booth."

Brennan nodded. There was nothing to say.

"Interesting that he came all this way to find you."

Brennan nodded again. She didn't want to think about Booth or what his motivation was to come to Montreal. She had always felt that she would never work with another law enforcement person besides Booth, but then she met Ryan. He seemed accepting and understanding. "Detective Ryan seems very understanding of the forensic process."

Tempe laughed. "Hasn't always been that way. And he hated working on hunch, particularly mine ... but over the years we have figured out how to work together."

"I have never worked with anyone other than Booth ... well there was another agent who filed in for him but she sort of just stayed out of the way."

"I have worked with a broad range of detectives in my career. Some think that science has no business in law enforcement and want me as far away from them as I can possibly get to the point that they will refuse to use what I give them. Others want me to run some test that tells them means, motive, and opportunity. To spell out the murderer's name in bright lights and then write it all up so they can be home in time for hockey. It takes most of them a little time to come around to figure out how we can work together, some never will."

Brennan nodded.

"Thinking about breaking in a new partner?"

"Thinking about not having a partner at all and sticking to the lab."

"What fun is there in that?" Tempe laughed.

Brennan wondered.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: **So we have Booth and Ryan off together and the Drs Brennan headed back to the Jeffersonian. That will be fun.

I guess I knew this story would have a small appeal, and I am grateful for all the people who are reading and commenting. I do like the interaction between these people and think it would be interesting to see this played out on screen. Who would you choose to play Andrew Ryan and Tempe Brennan? Have already had one suggestion of Bailey Chase for Ryan. James Marters might be fun playing off Boreanaz in an POST ANGEL world. Still haven't thought of a good Tempe yet. Suggestions?


	6. Chapter 6

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 6**

**By LizD**

**From Twitter: ****FunnyOrFact** If shes amazing, she wont be easy. If shes easy, she wont be amazing. If shes worth it, u wont give up. If u give up, u're not worthy. [SICs from Twitter]

Is there a message in there for any one of these characters even if you change the pronouns around?

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan did most of the talking on the way back out to interview the possible witnesses. A report came in on the tip line that there was a group of people living about five miles away from the burial site on government land. They were completely hidden from any normal access road. Ryan did some checking and there was not supposed to be anyone out there. These people were living totally off the grid. He had taken the opportunity to determine where they were located that morning when he was out there with Brennan (basically validating the tip) and there were people there. But he wasn't quite sure about Brennan in the field and he wasn't about to risk an unknown. If she were anything like Tempe, she wouldn't follow his instructions, so he went safe rather than sorry. When he saw Booth that morning standing around with nothing to do, he thought he would kill two curious birds with one stone.

Ryan stayed on safe subjects with Booth originally. Disclosed some of his past about getting hooked up with the wrong crowd in his youth, almost dying in a bar fight and then turning over a new leaf. Booth shared that he had been in the Rangers, a sniper and then the FBI. He casually mentioned that he had just gotten back from seven months consulting in Afghanistan. Ryan took it all in.

The conversation naturally turned to the Temperance Brennans.

"What do you think of this – two Temperance Brennan in the Forensic Anthropology field?" Ryan asked.

"Pretty strange coincidence," Booth said trying to pretend to be unaffected.

"Hell, I'd never heard for Forensic Anthropology until I met Tempe. Now I wonder how anyone does this job without one of them in their pocket."

"Bones opened my eyes as well." Booth thought back to their first case - indeed that whole first year: her insisting of going into the field with him, the trust building as they worked through each case. She had opened his eyes, as much as he opened hers.

"Bones," Ryan chuckled. "That's funny. Think Tempe would kick my ass into next week if I gave her a nickname like that." He glanced at Booth who looked out the window. "From what I can tell they have little in common, at least personality wise."

Booth smirked thinking that there was no one like Bones – personality-wise. "Can't say."

"She a good partner?"

"The best," he said without thinking. "She believes in truth over justice. And she won't jump to conclusions. She is all fact based. She's not a cop, but she has a tenacity that makes me better." Booth hadn't thought of Brennan in that way in a very long time.

"Tenacity … right … well Tempe surely does have that Terrier attitude." He glanced at Booth again who was still looking out the window. "So is she really your partner or is that just what you say to make her feel like she is part of the investigation."

"No, we were real partners … from the crime scene to the arrest."

"Were?" Ryan latched on to the tense of Booth's verb.

"Are," he corrected. "We are partners."

"And that's why you flew to Montreal on a moment's notice, leaving friends, family, lovers and other mothers, to be at your partner's side."

Booth looked over at him. He knew this game and was good at it too. "You and Tempe are just colleagues – she consults for you now and again?"

"More or less," Ryan grinned. "Sometimes a lot more. Sometimes a lot less."

"Does that get in the way?"

"Not at all. Tempe is single minded when it comes to working a case and I have no problem discerning what is work and what is personal. And as often as she goes off on her own, she needs someone like me looking out for her. Unfortunately she has a bad habit of thinking she can investigate on her own. Nearly cost her her life on several occasions … and mine a time or two. There was this one time with coyotes ... the animals, not the Mexican border crossers."

"That must get in the way." Booth turned to look at Ryan.

"No," he shrugged. "Why would it?"

"Don't you feel responsible for protecting her?"

"I do what I can – usually more, but she's a big girl with a mind of her own. I can't tell her what to do. Wouldn't want to. Wouldn't want that much responsibility. And she wouldn't let me anyway."

Booth nodded. Is that what he did with Bones? Did he tell her what to do? Was he responsible for her? Was she a responsibility that he didn't want to shoulder anymore?

"Of course we aren't partners – work or otherwise." He shrugged again. "Not sure anything would change if we were. She's pretty strong minded."

"Well, Bones relies on me." Booth stated with an odd tone. As he said it he wondered how much of that was true.

"Maybe too much?" Ryan offered.

"Maybe." Booth didn't want to admit it, but he did feel guilty that he wasn't there for Brennan the way he used to be.

"That must get in the way of the partnership," Ryan suggested. "Maybe she shouldn't."

"Maybe."

"Maybe she doesn't want to but doesn't know how to change." There was a long pause. "Or can't because something is stopping her."

Booth studied Ryan for a long moment. Maybe it wasn't something; it was someone. Maybe it was Booth who was not allowing Brennan to grow - always protecting her, trying to keep her safe. Booth thought back to the Gravedigger trial. She was scared, actually she was terrified to the point of having nightmares. She wasn't scared of dying, she wasn't scared that Taffet would take her again. She was scared that she would lose him or Hodgins or any of the other people she had let into her life. People she let in because of him, because he said it would be OK. She was scared that she wouldn't be able to stop another attack - any attack. She didn't want his protection. She told him that the night she refused him. She said she was protecting him and was terrified that she couldn't. Did he listen to her or did he just blow her off, placate her? Was it that feeling of terror that prompted her decision to go to Maluku? Or did he force her into that because he just didn't know how to deal with her fears?

"I don't know," Ryan defended. "This isn't my business. And let me say that I have flown after Tempe a time or two, but I always knew why."

"Why?"

"That's a question only you can answer." Ryan pulled over to the side of the road. He was instantly in work mode. "Sniper, right?"

"Yes."

"You're a good shot with a handgun too?"

"I hit what I aim at." Still leery.

Ryan pulled his .45 out of his holster and handed it to Booth. "Extra clips in the glovebox. Just in case."

Booth checked the weapon and push a round into the chamber. "Just in case."

Ryan maneuvered the Jeep back onto an access road that Booth hadn't noticed. It didn't look like it had been driven on in more than a year. "Don't aim at me."

"Right."

"You don't speak a word of French, do you?"

"Just what I have picked up from Pepe Le Pew."

Ryan thought for a moment. "Hang back and look ... you know ... menacing. Follow my lead."

Booth nodded.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

About six at night Brennan was in Tempe's office alone working through some of the lab reports they had gotten back. Brennan had called Cam to discuss the move to the Jeffersonian, Cam was reluctant to take on such a large case as a favor for their Canadian colleagues, but was ultimately fine with it. They would all get started in the morning.

Ryan and Booth were laughing and talking as they came into Tempe's office. Booth's right eye was black and blue. Something had clearly collided with it at great force. Ryan didn't appear to have a scratch on him, but he his gait was labored.

"Hey Bones," Booth said brightly in a way he hadn't spoken to her in more than a year. "We could have used you out there today."

"Where?"

Ryan interrupted. "I'll let you give her the blow by blow, I need to check in." He turned to Brennan. "Where's Tempe?"

"She is in the morgue making the final arrangements to ship everything back to the Jeffersonian."

Booth and Ryan quickly glanced at each other and burst out laughing. Clearly they had shared a joke at Brennan's expense. Ryan pulled a bill from his pocket and handed it to Booth. Booth refused. "Can't take your money, it was a sucker's bet."

"Beers on me then." Ryan clapped Booth on the shoulder. Booth winced in pain. Ryan saluted to Brennan and excused himself.

"Good guy," he announced. Booth turned his attention back to Brennan. Brennan was not amused. "What?" he tried to act innocent. "I just told him that you like to work out of your own lab. Told him about the alligator, the chocolate bar and the tons of concrete that you all had shipped to Jeffersonian."

Brennan was still not amused. "What happened to you?" She was referring to his eye and his obvious physical pain.

"Would love to say it was an uncooperative witness," he grinned. "But it was a moose."

"A moose? You questioned a moose?"

"Couldn't I was running too fast."

Brennan returned her attention to her lap top.

"So you were you just going to leave again?" Booth asked. "Or were you going to at least give me a heads up that you were headed home?"

Brennan closed her laptop and sat for a moment before slowly standing up and facing him. "Booth, I want to sever our partnership."

"Excuse me?" It hit him out of left field.

"Since we have returned," she took a long pause. "Since we have returned I do not feel that we are working ... that we are not working at our symbiotic - to use a term that you are comfortable with - at our symbiotic best."

Booth was stunned.

"I - at first - thought it was due to the seven month separation and that it would return after working a few cases together. But it has not. Your attitude toward me has changed. I will own, for my part, that I find it uncomfortable to be around you and I'm sure that it affects how I am when we are together."

"Is this because of Hannah?" he said gruffly.

"Your relationship with Hannah may be a factor in how you are treating me, but Hannah herself is not the issue. I don't feel that you respect me, my science or that you even like me anymore."

"We are partners, Bones."

"No Booth, we aren't."

"Ok, I'll admit things have been a little tense between us of late, but that doesn't mean we should throw five and a half years together out the window."

"There is an expression that I have never understood until now. When the equine is deceased one should stop whipping it. It seemed obvious to me and never quit understood why anyone would need to say it out loud, but I believe that is what we are doing."

"Beating a dead horse?"

"Yes."

"We should probably discuss this with Sweets."

"I would rather not. I don't feel that there is anything to be gained from a psychological point of view."

"No, of course you wouldn't," he said sharply. "This is just so simple for you?"

"No, Booth it isn't. In fact this is very painful. I realize that expecting our partnership to pick up where we left off after a year - seven month - separation was a bit naive."

"Ya think?" he snapped. "Hell, Bones, you never wrote to me, you never called me. I didn't know if you were alive or dead or ran off with some native."

"As you did with Hannah."

He bit back his first response.

"We had agreed to meet in a year," she went on. "I would have kept that meeting," she stated unequivocally. "Can you say the same?"

He said nothing.

"I needed time to gain a different perspective. I told you that. I told you how much I was being affected. How I didn't think I could do my job anymore. I told you I was tired of murders, victims, sadness and pain. You didn't want to hear it. You didn't want to entertain the notion that I could experience feelings that I didn't know how to deal with. You were patronizing and condescending. You brushed what I was feeling off with a suggestion for a vacation."

"And you chose Maluku for a year ... not two weeks in the sun with too much to drink, but a year in an Indonesian jungle."

"You and I have never agreed on what we like to do on our time off. But we also agreed that we would come back in a year and get back to work."

"And we did ... a few months shy of a year, but the same concept."

"We also agreed there had to be change." She glanced away briefly. "You came back changed."

"I didn't go there to meet Hannah," he protested. "I never expected to fall in love." Brennan winced. "What?"

"You had implied you were in love with me."

"And you weren't in love with me."

"I never said that."

"I asked, Bones."

"You wanted to take a chance, Booth. Like something more with me was a gamble you were willing to take. After five - six years of denying you had feelings for me other than friendship, you announce that you wanted to take a chance. I said no ... to protect you."

"I don't need your protection."

"Nor do I need yours."

"I had to move on, Bones."

"Yes," she said with tears in her eyes. "Apparently that is exactly what you did."

"Why does that mean our partnership has to end?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, Booth. I have been very accepting of your new relationship. I have gone so far as to cover with our friends. But you seem bitter and angry and annoyed with me. Is that because of Hannah? Does being angry with me help you be with her?"

"No." He felt shamed. "I don't know. I'm not angry with you ... it's just ... I don't know."

"Why did you come to Montreal, Booth?"

"Why did you leave without telling me?"

She shook her head. "We are at an impasse," she announced. "Before further damage is done, I believe we should sever our partnership."

"If that's what you want," he said like a little boy.

"I believe that's what's best."

They were silent for a long moment.

"Will you still consult with the FBI?" he asked. "With me?"

"From the lab, if I'm available. I'm thinking about teaching again and Tempe has offered to do some exchanges: me in Montreal and her at the Jeffersonian. But there will be plenty of other _Squints_ to take my place. Clarke Edison is a fine scientist. Wendell Bray will have his doctorate soon. Vincent Nigel-Murray -"

"No one can take your place, Bones."

She nodded. "We will be heading back to the Jeffersonian soon, I need to get prepared." She edged him toward the door so she could lock up behind her.

"Right," he stepped back. "Right. Well I'll see you around, eh Bones." He plastered a fake smile on his face. "We'll get coffee, right? You know. Coffee?"

Her expression washed with sadness. "No, Booth. I don't think we will." She walked down the hall.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan found Tempe in the lobby. Without a word, Tempe folded her in a very sisterly embrace and they left the building.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: **Wow, that was kind of sad**. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 7**

**By LizD**

**A/N: I am so pleased with our small but loyal band of Brennanites. Thanks to each and everyone one of you for reading and taking time to drop me a comment. It means so much. I will endeavor to keep this story going as quickly as possible. Because the last chapter was so sad, I thought I would post this short one to give us all something positive to think about. Change is in the wind and it is picking up speed. **

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan let himself into to Tempe's apartment. He expected that they would already have left and he was tasked with feeding the cat.

"HEY!" Tempe shouted. "Up against the wall."

Ryan grinned. "That's old school, cupcake. Now it's ON YOUR KNEES, PUNK!"

"Don't want you getting the wrong idea."

"I've got plenty of ideas, not sure any one of them is wrong." He leaned into kiss her but she stepped back. He frowned. "Tempe 2.0 still here?"

"Went for a walk, or a run, or Tai Chi in the park." Tempe went to the kitchen.

"So we are alone ... at last?" Ryan followed.

"Our taxi will be her in fifteen minutes." She handed him a beer from the fridge. "You OK watching Birdie?"

"Birdie and I are pals," he looked around for the cat who was nowhere to be seen. "We go way back ... might bring Charlie by if you stay away too long."

"I'll be back in a day or two."

"You going to stay out of trouble?"

She spread her arms. "What could happen?"

"I shudder to think."

"What happened with the witnesses."

"Gone."

"Gone?"

"Whoever was out there are packed up and gone. Must have gotten wise with all the traffic."

"Who do you think they were?"

"Not a clue."

"You heard about the DNA, yes?"

He winced. "Yeah but .."

"You need the Cliff Notes?"

"How about just tell me why it's important."

"Those women were all related: grandmother, mother, daughters. There should have been great granddaughters as even the youngest - age about fifteen - had given birth."

"Close family, must be from your neck of the woods."

"If you are trying to make a hillbilly joke, you might be more right than you think. We are running some other tests but it looks like the younger ones were showing signs of ... how do I say this? There is evidence of genetic disorders more pronounced in the younger ones."

"Same Daddy?"

"Crude but could be accurate. We will know more when we get the rest of the results."

"Hence the move to the Jeffersonian."

"Yeah ... HENCE." She shook her head and smiled at him. "What was this I heard about a Moose?"

He laughed. "Not sure if I can do the story justice, suffice it to say, Booth can move when he has to but all his Afghan training didn't teach him squat about the North American Bull Moose."

"Is he OK?" She wasn't asking about his physical well being.

Ryan shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Seems like a straight arrow. Had some great stories to tell about Brennan. They've been through some shit."

"Not anymore."

"Oh?"

"I don't have any details, but Brennan's gone freelance. Even asked if we could job swap."

Ryan wanted to play it off with a joke, but it just wasn't funny. How many more boulders was Tempe going to throw in their path. He ran his hand through his hair. "So, now you'll have three gigs?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Not for you apparently." Ryan shook his head. "Do I really need to spell it out for you?"

"Clearly. I'm a little dense."

"Look, Tempe, we are too old to be playing this stupid game. If you just like to be chased, good, I am all for that. I can chase. I just want to know I have a chance in hell of catching what I'm chasing."

"Ryan, this isn't the time."

"I understand you have an issue with marriage, commitment, trust ... God knows I haven't been as open with you as I could have been. I screwed up big time. But I've changed. Turned over a new leaf. Seen the light. I'm not going to ask you to move here permanently. I just want to know that ... that ..." He threw up his hands. "Fuck it. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about or if you're even listening. Go. Do what you have to do. Do what you want to do. I'll watch the cat. I'll be here if and when you get back." He shrugged his jacket back on and started for the door.

She followed him to the door. "Hey." She grabbed his arm. "Ask the question."

"What question?"

"I can't answer that for you." She slipped her hand into his and pressed firmly. "Ask the question."

"Move in with me."

"That's not a question."

"Are we on Jeopardy? Move in with me ... share at least this part of your life with me."

She nodded and smiled. "I think I can do better than that." She leaned in and kissed him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"How much better."

"Let's take it one step at a time."

"As long as we are stepping in the same direction." He kissed her again. "What made you change your mind."

"Tempe2." He didn't understand. "She's miserable and alone and it's her own fault. Yes, she'd been dealt some bad cards, but she has also squandered the good ones. I understand about shutting out the world so it can't hurt you, but it isn't a way to live. I don't want to do that anymore. We're good together Ryan - work and play. We have fun. I like hearing your voice at the end of my day and knowing that you'll be there when I call. If you're really asking ... then I'm really answering."

"I'm really asking."

"Then ... the answer is yes."

"You tell me this five minutes before you leave again?"

"Anticipation is sweet."

"What about Lily?"

"Yes, we'll go together. Maybe we can even get Katy to come up once in a while."

"Nice." They kissed again but briefly as they heard the buzzer announcing that Brennan was back. "She and Booth ... really? No more?" Tempe shrugged. "Well, I'll take him out and get him drunk ... maybe even get him laid. He can't go home to his girlfriend after a blow like that." Ryan knew all about losing the woman you love and then having to go home and pretend everything is normal.

"You're a good man, Andrew Ryan."

"Wow, you do know my first name."

"I know a lot of things about you."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth had walked back to his hotel. It wasn't a good idea as he would have to walk back and get the rental later, but he needed the time to clear his head. His phone blowing up with calls from everyone - everyone but Bones. He let them all go to voice-mail. In the Montreal winter air, he reviewed his years with Brennan: her issues, his issues, their issues. He had always assumed that they would be together. It wasn't a reasonable assumption, but it was real to him. Even in Afghanistan he still referred to her as his partner. He remembered telling Hannah about her when they first met. He liked talking about Brennan and Hannah was a good listener. She was good at everything. She was happy and so easy to be with. He didn't feel stupid around her. Nothing was complicated. It was life, death and love - the human existence stripped down to the bare essentials. But that can't be the norm - or should it be? People say you should always live life as if it is the last day on earth, but that is just not practical.

He thought about what Brennan had said to him and had to admit that he was not comfortable around her since he got back. He had built up some anger toward her that erupted when he met her again. Seven months of nothing and she acted like nothing had changed. How was it possible that a human being can go five years talking to a person every day, sharing every intimate detail, life and death to nothing. Dead air. Not a phone call. Not an email. Not a message sent by carrier pigeon. For the first few weeks Booth just figured she was caught up in the dig. But then more time went by and more and more and more and still he got nothing. By the time he met Hannah he had convinced himself that Brennan and he would never work - she was just too ...

He never actually finished that thought. Never once in all the time he was away or since he came back did he ever finish that thought. To think it, to say it, to give it weight would have been a betrayal of what he had hoped and believed in his heart. But bottom line, regardless of the truth of her, as amazing a woman as she was - is - will always be - he had to let her go to find her own way. He needed more. He needed what she couldn't give. And that made him mad.

He put in a call to Hannah. "Hey Seeley, what's going on? You sound like you lost your best friend."

Booth didn't answer. "I'll be home tomorrow morning, think you can take the day off?"

"Sorry honey, wheels up at 0500. We are headed west. Some big conference in Portland and then Seattle. I should be back at the end of the week."

He was usually disappointed when Hannah went away, but he knew he would have to get used to it. This time however it was a relief. "Ok. Have a safe trip."

"I'm with the secret service, babe. Doesn't get much safer."

"They aren't there to protect you."

"I'll be fine." She paused. "You sure you're OK? What's going on in Canada?"

"Nothing," he said sadly. "Was a mistake to come."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan and Tempe waited in the terminal for them to call the first class passengers. The plane was on time. Brennan let her eyes search the other passengers at the airport.

"Do you expect him to be here?" Tempe asked.

"No." Brennan looked down again.

"Are you sure you did the right thing?"

Brennan looked at her new friend. "No. I am never sure when it comes to Booth." She looked away again. "At least about stuff like this."

"Stuff like what?"

"I trust him. I respect him. I admire his work ethic. I have killed for him as he has done for me. I want to protect him."

"It's pretty clear that he feels the same way - it's what partners do."

Brennan shook her head. "It never used to ... but now it hurts when I look in his eyes. He doesn't look at me the way he used to. I think I have hurt him - I know I have - but I can't fix it."

"Do you want to?"

"I don't know. I want back what we had, but I don't think that is possible."

"No, probably not. You can't go back. You can only go forward."

Brennan nodded. "It's better this way. Better for Booth."

"And easier for you," Tempe said.

Brennan didn't have to respond as the first class passengers were called to board.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan and Booth pulled up outside a bar in a pretty seedy section of town. Ryan had come and pulled him out of his minibar stupor.

"It's a cop bar," Ryan explained. "Still, we could probably get into some trouble."

Booth looked up at the neon sign over the bar's name. The letters P O O L were flashing at him. "Come full circle I guess," he muttered under his breath.

Ryan followed his gaze. "Do you play?" he said brightly exiting the Jeep. "Got any money on you?"

"Sure," Booth said. "Why not." He was giving up on scotch for the night and going with Tequila.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: ** It is strange to think that Ryan and Tempe are more stable than Booth and Brennan. Kind of a twist, eh? But I have faith in the Bs. Might take a walk down a dark alley to get them to see the light at the end of the tunnel and know what is right. Thanks for sticking with it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 8**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **Sorry, wanted to get this out earlier but work got in the way. Don't you hate that?

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth was up about two hundred and fifty dollars and down half a bottle of Patron Anejo. Ryan took losing well at first. Figured he would let Booth win to lift his mood. That lasted one game, maybe a little into the second. But then it became an all out battle. Ryan knew his way around a pool table and he knew a player when he met one. There was no doubt about it: Booth was a player. But Ryan hated to lose.

Booth was feeling that old itch. It felt good. He loved the feel of the cue in his hand, the chalk on his fingers, the smell of the felt and the clack of the balls. He loved the sound of a good shot. Where the cue hits the ball in just the right spot and it sets in motion the ***CLACK*** into another ball, the ***THUMP*** into the bumper and the ***DUNK*** into the hole - nothing but net (so to speak). He was a master at leaving the cue ball exactly where he needed it to be to set up his next shot and then taking it with razor sharp precision. He loved the look on the opponent's face when he saw that Booth was running the table. How many nights had he spent taking suckers' money? How much money and pride he lost on the rare occasions he would run into someone who was better? Or how he wouldn't give up until dawn or the money ran out and was back the next night to redeem himself? It was familiar, it was safe, it was easy. It would be easy just to slip back into that old life where nothing mattered but what was right in front of him: nine ball side pocket; six ball off the ten, banked the rail and into the corner pocket; eight ball through the fifteen and twelve slamming into corner pocket - end of game.

He downed another shot as he scanned the table. He knew what he had to do. He knew what it would take to win. The other guy didn't have a chance. Booth ran the table: quick, clean, efficient, no extra movies, no garish flare, no trash talk. Like the sniper, he planned each stroke with stone cold precision and executed it.

Ryan watched Booth. It was pretty after a fashion. Like watching any pro athlete do what they are best at. With the eight ball sunk, Ryan dropped his money on the table and moved to rack 'em up for the next game. Booth reached for his shot glass and caught himself in the smoky mirror with M O O S E H E A D written across the top of it over the profile of the moose - Canadian Lager. He didn't like what he saw. He was tense and agitated. His jaw was clenched and he had a look in his eye - a look he hadn't seen since he came home from the first gulf war. He was done. He would not go back there again. Booth tossed his cue down on the table along with the cash he had just won.

Ryan looked up.

"I'm done," Booth announced.

"What's this?" Ryan held up the Canadian bank notes. Booth shook his head. "Hey." Ryan thrust the money at him. "A bet's a bet."

"No," Booth said solemnly. "I'm not a gambler anymore."

Ryan didn't understand. How could he? He didn't know Booth's history - at least not that part. How could he know that Booth had made his last bet just over a year ago and lost - lost more than he could afford to lose? Isn't that the first rule of gambling: never bet more than you can afford to lose? Losing something, someone so important woke a man up more than all the meetings in the world ever could. It's just that some men woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it took them a while to get their bearings again.

"I need something to eat," Booth said.

"What are you hungry for?"

"Your town; your call."

Ryan held up his cash. "Guess I'm buying." Ryan liked Booth. And whatever epiphany he just had; he would be OK. Sometimes all a man - anyone - needed was a good look in the mirror.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan and Tempe were at the lab early the next morning. Brennan had returned the favor and let Tempe stay in her guest room, but that night there was no _anthropologic girl-talk_ until dawn. Brennan was tired and very depressed about the situation with Booth. She believed her decision was correct but the loss of him made her feel literal pain in her heart. She knew that was physically impossible, but it was true to her experience.

She had missed him when she was in Maluku; missed him more than she expected she would have. She was anxious to get back, to reconnect with him, to return to their work, their partnership, their friendship and possibly more. She had undergone a change while she was away, a change in perspective, in attitude, in expectations, but too much had changed for him during their separation. He had moved on, but more than that, he had turned away from her. She accepted his change, accepted the decisions he had made in her absence and hoped that they could rework what they had and come up with a working solution. That didn't happen. She finally had to accept that too much had changed between them and that nothing good could be salvaged. It wasn't until she saw his face when he said _'If that's what you want_' that she truly believed that he was going to be out of her life permanently. It was her decision and she accepted that responsibility. She appreciated that again he accepted her choice with little argument. She rationalized that it was the correct course of action given the state of their partnership. But it made her miserable.

It would take time to grieve that loss. It would be hard to work crime scenes if he were there. It would be harder still if he weren't. In the dark of the night, alone in her bed, when the world was still and the noise in her head was a low din, she considered quitting altogether. She considered going back to teaching and doing pure research. She had options. But all of those felt like she was running away. Like she was trying to hide from something - something so powerful that it would find her wherever she ran. The logical, rational, pragmatic side of her brain reasoned away her fears, but for the first time since she was fifteen years old, her rational brain didn't have the loudest voice. She woke more tired than she had ever been with eyes swollen from too many tears shed.

Tempe had been very understanding. She broached the subject but allowed Brennan to control it. Brennan wasn't quite ready to talk. Work was good medicine now.

At the office, Brennan was requesting lab work and reviewing the materials that arrived from Montreal. Tempe had been set up on the platform with the bones of their nine victims and Clark Edison to assist.

Angela breezed into Brennan's office. "You're back! How was it? Meet any interesting Canucks? Who's the chick on the platform? Clarke has this strange expression on his face."

"That is the forensic anthropologist from Montreal."

Angela looked down at the platform. "She pretty, I guess. Thin. Sick thin. I used to be thin." She rubbed her swelling abdomen longing for the days when she wasn't carrying weight for two. "So you brought her back here to show off?"

"I felt the facilities and the staff at the Jeffersonian would be more conducive to finding the answers we needed."

"So, showing off."

Brennan frowned.

"Meet any interesting people there - besides the Canadian You? Maybe a nice Mountie?" Brennan didn't understand. "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police - red coat, Smokey the Bear hat, probably on a horse."

Brennan shook her head. "I did meet a very qualified detective but he said nothing about being mounted or a horse, but there was something about a moose that I didn't quite understand."

"Oh yeah ... cute? Sexy? Details, Bren, I need details."

"I found his appearance to be very pleasing. He's quite a bit older but has kept himself in good physical condition." Brennan thought back to the night she was aural witness to his stamina. "Very good condition. I responded to the color of his eyes, the breadth of his chest and the narrowness of his hips."

"Yeah?" Angela prodded.

"But he is in a recently committed relationship."

"Seems to be a trend." Angela frowned. "Well, maybe he has a brother."

"He told me nothing about siblings."

Angela shook her head and sat down. She loved Brennan dearly and knew that her literal responses where just her way of engaging in small talk. "So, you and Booth ... north of the border ... Hannah a thousand miles away ... did you talk?"

Brennan bristled. Angela noticed. "I'm still not sure why Booth followed me to Canada."

"It wasn't at your request, the request of the police in Montreal begging for Booth and Brennan style expertise in a particularly gruesome murder?"

"No," Brennan said. "I was on vacation and Booth took it upon himself to fly up there."

"Really, that's interesting."

"I don't see how." Brennan was still in full denial about Booth's motivations partly because it didn't fit with her actions. "I severed my partnership with Booth."

"What?" Angela sat up. "Sweetie, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I was giving Booth an honorable way out."

"You think that's what he wanted?"

"It was the only conclusion that I could come to after weighing all the evidence."

"What evidence?"

Brennan proceeded to outline point by point for Angela all the events that led up to her decision to end the partnership. Angela hadn't known about Booth's request to _**take a chance**_. She did know about the paralyzing fear that Brennan was living with before she accepted the position in Maluku. Of course she knew about Hannah. And it was impossible to miss the change in Booth. It had made her crazy at times; she wanted to shake him senseless.

"What did he say?"

Brennan couldn't go over the conversation she had with Booth one more time. It had been running on an endless loop in her head since the moment it was over. "He ultimately agreed that it was the right course of action."

"I don't believe that," Angela said. "But it would be typical of Booth not to fight for what he wants."

"Do not blame Booth, Ange. I am more to blame in the failure of this partnership than Booth is."

"For five years it was not a failure – it was a great success. If you two chose to give up … well … It takes two to tango, Sweetie." She stood up and came around Brennan's desk, pulled her to standing and gave her the tightest hug should could given the new little Hodgins bump.

"Oh," Brennan pulled back and looked Angela in the eyes. "She kicked me."

Angela's face washed with weariness. "Oh yeah, this little devil is going to be a soccer player or a dancer."

"May I?" Brennan asked as she hovered her hand over Angela's stomach.

"Of course."

Brennan slowly slid her hand around resting in places and waiting for the next kick or elbow jab. She felt one and smiled up at Angela.

"I've been using the ultrasound ... wanna see?"

"Yes." Angela linked her arm though Brennan's leading her out to the Ultrasound room. "I'm sorry, Bren." Brennan just nodded. "Have you ever considered getting inseminated again? We could raise our kids together."

Brennan gave her a side glance. "I think I will observe your experience from a very close range before I consider that again."

Angela shrugged. "Probably a good idea."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth walked into his apartment and collapsed on the couch. The room was still and quiet. He looked around noticing something. It was the same. The same as it had been. There was no change. No furniture had been repositioned. No new pictures hung on the wall. With the exception of a rotary dial phone on the end table, nothing was different. That made him curious. He got up and went to the bedroom. New sheets on the bed; that was new. Other than that, there was nothing different. It was as it always had been since long before he went to Afghanistan. He stepped into the closet. With the exception of a half dozen hangers with a couple of blouses and some slacks, everything in there was his. Two pair of pumps and some hiking boots on the floor didn't belong to him; the rest of the foot ware was his. In the bathroom: one toothbrush in the glass, only his shampoo was in the shower, nothing else was out of place.

Hannah had been living with him for over four months but she hadn't left a mark on the place. She was gone a lot. Her bags were always packed. She lived out of a kitbag. She didn't want to hang curtains, paint the walls, or move the dishes closer to the sink. It was as if she were staying there, not living there.

He went to the kitchen to grab a beer. It was a little early in the day, but he really needed a beer. In the refrigerator there was one container of yogurt. Booth didn't eat yogurt. That was it. That was the only evidence that someone other than Booth ate out of that refrigerator. She drank his brand of coffee, beer, scotch. She ate his brand of bread, cheese, cereal. And she always cleaned up after herself. She never left a cup on the table or dishes in the sink. She had made no tangible footprint.

Booth caught his distorted reflection in the chrome of the oven. He didn't like what he saw.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Hodgins came up to the platform. "New kid on the block?" he said to Tempe's back admiring her back end. She turned and faced him. So, not a kid. "Dr. Jack Hodgins," he said. "Bugs and slime."

"Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist."

Hodgins was stunned. He looked over at Clark Edison who just nodded and shrugged.

"Sorry, don't we have one of those?" Jack said glibly.

"Well, now you have the set."

A light came on for Hodgins. "Riiiiight. Montreal, yes?"

"Oui, je suis du Québec à laboratoire des sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale."

"Sweet." Hodgins studied her for a moment. "Is your name really Temperance Brennan?"

"You want to see my ID?"

"Nah, you could have faked that." He smiled. "So can I show you what I've got."

"Love to hear it." Tempe's phone rang. "In just a moment." She stepped away. "Temperance Brennan."

"Hey there, cupcake." Ryan's voice came spilling out of her phone.

She couldn't help it. A smile lit up her entire face. "Hi."

"How goes it down there?"

"Great. You need to see these facilities. Just fantastic. Every toy known to man is here."

"Don't get too comfortable."

"Just seeing how the other half lives. You'll get to see it soon anyway."

"I heard. Can't live without me?"

"Your case, your presence is requested. There was a flag on the DNA. Something about a missing kid from the 40s out of Maryland."

"Like 1940?"

"Yes."

"We have DNA from 1940?"

"It's complicated."

"Isn't it always?"

"So when are you coming?"

"Maybe tonight – late - probably tomorrow. Get a hotel … an expensive one."

"Who's paying?"

"SQ." He paused. "Hey, did you tell the Bird Meister about us?"

She loved how he treated the animals as if they were human beings. "Not yet, haven't had time. Did you?"

"No, but the Birdster is not talking to me."

"Is he alright?"

"Looks fine. Eats fine. Sits in the same room with me, but looks the other way. I stayed here last night and he sat on the floor by the door watching me. I was afraid to go to sleep; didn't want to wake up with his fangs in my jugular."

"He's just jealous. Don't worry. We'll sit him down and tell him together when I get back."

"When WE get back," he corrected. "So, your neighbor for the Birdman?"

"Mrs. Hoffman. She has a key. Birdie likes her." She chuckled. "I'll call her."

"So … tonight or tomorrow?"

Tempe thought for a moment. "Tonight. The Watergate."

"Great, I'll bring my electronic equipment. Maybe we can break into something."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Hodgins ran up to Angela's office while Tempe was on the phone. "You'll never guess," he said.

"No, you'll never guess."

"What?"

"No you go first."

"Ladies, first."

"Mines bigger – in a totally tragic rip your heart out and stomp on it kind of way."

"Ok, well mine is just weird. I go first. The chick down on the platform?"

"The anthropologist from Montreal?"

"Yeah, her name is Temperance Brennan."

"What?" Angela looked toward the platform.

"Seriously. I mean I didn't check her ID or anything, but -"

"Ok, that is weird … but mine is tragic and we need to do something about it."

"What?"

"Brennan broke up with Booth."

"I thought Booth was with that hot Hannah chick."

"Hot Hannah Chick?"

"Married, not dead, Angie."

"No, she broke off the partnership."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Wow," he said. "Who gets us?"

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

The door opened. Hannah came in talking on the phone. She smiled when she saw Booth and motioned that she would be done in a minute. She was talking to her editor. They were arguing about a story assignment. Her position was that she was better suited to bring in the story than whoever had been assigned. She defended herself for some breach in protocol. Claimed that it was minor and would work in out when they got back. The call abruptly ended from the other end.

"Hey babe," she leaned into kiss him. "Guess I do get the day off. Let me go put this stuff away."

Booth sunk down on to the couch and waited, drinking his beer, waiting for her to return.

She flopped down next to him. "So, I was removed from the Washington Press Corp," she announced trying to look like she was in trouble but it was clear from her expression that she was elated about the development. "At the press secretary's request. I guess I asked too many pointed questions and demanded answers."

Booth nodded.

"Don't worry though. My editor as said he will use me as on the Washington Beat, just not with the president."

Booth nodded again.

"Maybe I can finally get back to that crooked cop story." She flipped her hair back from her face the way she did. "And I can always go freelance too, right? Blog and submit features to whoever wants me. A gun for hire – so to speak."

One more nod.

"What's the matter, babe?" She touched his face and slid her fingers through his hair. "Looks like you just lost your best friend."

Booth looked at her. "You said that last night."

"Well you still look like it today. What's going on?"

Booth shook his head. He wasn't ready to say the words out loud. "What was that you were discussing with your editor about some story?"

Hannah gave him a wary eye. She got that he wasn't ready to talk so she could fill in until he was ready. "There is this great story … I can't talk about it … but it would be big … I mean PULITZER big and he is giving it to this mindless twit would wouldn't know a good story if it came up and bit her in the ass."

Booth studied her beautiful face for a long moment. Ran his fingers through her hair. Pulled her to him for a tender kiss. "Why didn't you get the assignment?"

She kissed him back. "Because it is far away from here. Too far from you."

"How long?" He pulled her on to his lap.

"Month, two, six … hard to say. It could blow up into something really big. Like I said, Pulitzer material." She gave him a weak smile.

He searched her eyes; kissed her again. "You should take it."

"No." She protested trying to kiss him but he held her back. She all of a sudden knew he was serious.

"Yes." He touched her face gently and produced a smile that was more bitter than sweet. "You should take it."

"Seeley, no."

"I love you for coming here. I love you for trying. I love you for giving up so much for me." He combed her hair off her face. "But we both know this is not where you belong."

"I love you … I don't need a Pulitzer."

"You do. You have a whole career that you LOVE in front of you. I don't want you to give it up … not for me."

"I want to … I mean, I'm not giving up my career. I want to write. I can write here. We can make this work."

"Sure we can." He smiled sadly. "For a while … maybe another six months, maybe a year … maybe even two years."

"We can make it longer than that."

"Hannah, I want kids. I want to give Parker a brother or sister or both."

"Yeah, me too," she said weakly. "I mean … someday … we can adopt."

"Babe, I'm nearly a decade older than you. I don't want to wait any more. I want to be young enough to pick them up, see them graduate college, get married and have kids or careers of their own."

"OK, well … we can talk about that … aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves? We haven't known each other for a year yet. We haven't talked about any of this."

"I know. But I know what I want."

"And you don't think you can have it with me?"

"I don't want you to be any different than you are. I love your spirit, your love of life. You are happy and joyful and free. I won't be the one that takes that away from you."

"You want domestic?" She tried to get off his lap. "I can do domestic."

"No, babe. No. I want you to take that big story. I want to follow each and every story you find for as long as you want."

"Will you wait?"

He shook his head. "No." She started to tear up. "If we had met when I was younger or you were older or at some other time in our lives, but not now. Not like this. I can't be the one to take that life out of you."

"You never asked me to. It was my idea."

"I know. Believe me I know."

They talk back and forth for a bit longer. Finally he convinced her to call her editor and find out about the job. If she wanted it, she would need to leave immediately. By then the decision was made. Though tears and regrets, Hannah packed the rest of her stuff, kissed him good bye and left to find her future without Seeley Booth.

Booth went to the kitchen to get another beer. Her yogurt was still there. Now the only evidence that she was ever there was her raspberry yogurt and Booth's sad heart.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: **Another sad one, but I think we have made major strides here (it was longer than I expected). Stay tuned. More tomorrow (hopefully). Will probably wrap this up before next week's episode airs. I get the feeling that it will be a game changer and this story will have run its course. But there is still more to do.


	9. Chapter 9

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 9**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **This one will be a little Tempe/Ryan focused cause I think they are getting short shrift. Besides I think Booth and Brennan need a minute to sit with some of the decisions that each has made.

**WARNING:** Gonna try to do some science here. Don't quote me and just let it be what it is. I have been trying to avoid it, but it seems that I need to move this case along. I promise it will only be a paragraph or two and it won't affect the character story.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Tempe entered from the bathroom with only the hotel robe loosely tied around her small frame. She had to admit, in the past working with human remains all day she would need three showers, at least two different floral scented body washes and two shampoos to get the stink of death off her even if the remains were bones. If nothing else, the Jeffersonian was clean, lots of ventilation, and drainage. She could get used to working like that. Tonight she only needed one shower, but what a shower it was. The Watergate was closed, in foreclosure, being remodeled, some such. She booked them in to the Sofitel and they sent a limo to pick Ryan up at the air port. It was totally decadent, but Tempe felt like celebrating.

She was just about to call for room service when there was a rap on her door. Not a soft knock from a bellman. Not a housekeeping quick tap and call out. It was a RAP.

RAP. RAP. RAP.

It was a cop's knock.

"Who is it?" She called in a sing song voice. She was a little sorry she hadn't had a chance to slip into the little lavender number that she had picked up at Victoria Secret that day. But Ryan would either wait, or get just as much enjoyment out of it on the chair as he would have on her. She liked that he knew what was important. There was no response to her little coo. "Hello?"

"Open up! It's the police." Ryan pounded again.

She bloused her robe open slightly, shifted it so that a long lean leg would protrude through the slit at the bottom, and ran her fingers through her wet hair. A little make up would have been good, but again - what's important. She opened the door and struck a pose.

Of course Ryan wasn't alone. The bellman had insisted on showing him to his room can carrying Ryan's duffel (it was for her protection as well as his - the guests were their utmost priority). Other than drop dead sexy, Ryan looked totally out of place in the plush hallway with his boots, jeans and bomber jacket.

"Nice, Doc." Ryan said as he gave a 'lucky me' smile to the bellman. The bellman had averted his eyes, but the smile could not be hidden.

Tempe stepped back to let the men enter as she secured her robe.

"Nice digs too."

The bellman set the duffel on the luggage stand. "May I get you anything else, Mr. Ryan?"

"No, No ... I am sure we have everything we need. Don't we, lamp chop?"

Tempe rolled her eyes and sat down in the chair by the fire.

Ryan tipped the man and sent him on his way putting out the DO NOT DISTURB sign.

"Gonna chase away room service with that sign, Ryan," she warned.

"I can provide any service you need in this room, Angelfish." He took off his jacket and tossed it on the chair and nodded approvingly at the king sized bed that had already been turned down. "How much is this setting the tax payers of Canada back?"

"Four Hundred Plus."

"A night?" He whistled and pulled a beer from the in room beverage service (aka mini-bar). He nearly drained the bottle in one swallow. "Then we better not waste it, eh?"

"Not fond of waste."

He moved to the fireplace near to where she was sitting. Keeping his back to her he started talking again. "So you like the Jeffersonian, huh? Pretty high tech?"

"Really nice. Someone is bankrolling this place cause it's not coming from the government."

"There are a lot of private donations - predominately from the Cantilever Group."

"How did you get that?"

He turned toward her with a wry smile.

"Shouldn't you be DETECTING something about our murder victims rather than checking out people who are trying to help us."

"I like to know the players, cupcake."

"Did you check me out when we first met?"

"Baby, I checked you out every chance I got." He licked his lips. Tempe did an eye roll. "And I ran a background on you too."

"That's abuse of the badge."

"Make a citizen's arrest." He turned back to the fire. "So, did you fill out a job ap yet?"

Tempe was done with his interrogation "What's going on, Ryan?"

He faced her. "Saw LaManche before I left. Asked me how I liked working with Junior."

"And you assumed that ... what? ... I was going to do this job swap and not tell you?"

He pursed his lips looking for the right way to phrase what he wanted to say. "It wouldn't be the first time you did something when you said you weren't going to - this time however it might not put your life in danger."

"Right." She was annoyed. Trust would continue to be an issue, clearly. "I suppose LaManche didn't tell you that he was considering trying to expand his budget so that he could have a full time forensic anthropologist on staff." She sat up in the chair as Ryan squirmed a bit. "No, he probably didn't tell you that. He also probably didn't tell you that he had offered me full time and was considering splitting the job with me and Brennan as she seemed interested if I turned him down."

"Which you have," he pressed.

"Which I probably will, as I have ties and responsibilities to UNCC."

"Is that the only reason you keep coming back down here?" He asked directly. "I heard there was a ex-lover that you often keep company with in the area."

Tempe bit her lip staving off the irritation. "There is a Charlie Hunt who I knew before I was married. We have dinner occasionally. He would like more, but I have not -" She was going to protest that she hadn't slept with him but the truth was there was one lost weekend that Tempw wasn't very proud of where she thought she did. It was one weekend with no real memories. She was back on the wagon and the straight and narrow ever since. And Ryan was with the baby-mamma anyway. She had no reason to be ashamed. "I'm not interested."

"No?"

"No, recently my status has changed. Though I haven't had time to update my Facebook page. When the time is right, I will inform Charlie of that."

"When will the time be right?"

"When I am done with this case, but I think a phone call at midnight is probably the best way to handle it, don't you?"

Ryan didn't respond.

"On the other hand ... as things are going at the moment, it may not be necessary to tell him anything."

Ryan finished his beer.

"Ya know they say that knowledge is power, but they also say curiosity killed the cat. You might want tune down the detective paranoia if you want to keep friends and lovers."

He shook his head. "Katy told Lily and Lily told me. Guess they didn't want me to get my heart broken."

"What about you. I don't have spies, so I have to rely on the horse's mouth."

"I've been a monk since I moved Letetia out - before actually but that's splitting hairs."

"Never good sportsmanship to bring her up."

"Point taken."

"A monk, huh?" She fixed him with a glare that would melt iron. "Who's taking care of Charlie - the bird - while you are down here."

He shrugged. "My neighbor?"

"Your neighbor?" She wasn't pleased. "Is it the old man in the wheel chair who smells like Febreeze or the twenty year old geek who can't get more than three feet from his computer or Colette, the hooker."

"First off," he smiled. He liked when Tempe got jealous. "Colette is not a hooker. She's an exotic dancer and actually very talented. She is also an artist, a musician and a contortionist."

"That must come in really handy when she has to clean the cage."

"Hey, she lives right there."

"And she has a key to your apartment."

"So, Mrs. Hoffman has a key to yours?"

"You are seriously not trying to compare the two."

"You worried about how I get my needs met when you are out of town, dumpling?" He sat down on the coffee table in front of her and put his hands on her knees directing her to face him.

"It has crossed my mind."

"More than once I bet." He rubbed his hand up her thigh.

"Maybe."

"Not to fear, my sweet, I'm as loyal as a Labrador."

"Right."

"You want me to move? Find a new neighbor?" He took one of her hands in both of his and massaged her fingers.

"I agreed to live with you, I didn't agree that the location would be yours."

"So I get to move in with you ... into that tiny place?" He switched hands.

"We could find a place that suits both our needs."

"And passes your good neighbor policy."

"I see that as a good compromise."

"And what about your job." He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed each one in turn.

"If things continue to go well for us, I will start pulling away from my responsibilities at UNCC. Fair enough?"

He nodded.

"Will you kiss me now?"

He grin spread across his whole face. "Is that what you have been waiting for, lamb chop?" He kissed her and kissed her well.

"We need to work on your pet names."

"I've got a million of them."

"I know." She kissed him and they proceeded to indulge in every amenity in the room.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

About four AM they were done with breakfast. Both were thrilled that room service was twenty-four hours. They talked about the case as they ate steak and eggs in bed.

There was a twelve year old girl - Lucy Snowland - who had been kidnapped from the Maryland area in 1939. In 1995, she was found in an unmarked grave in Maine when a graveyard was being moved to make way for a highway. She arrived at the Jeffersonian and was put in limbo until it was her turn. She was identified through DNA in 2008. Her twin sister, Lana Snowland, never stopped looking for her and had provided DNA samples a few years before she died. The evidence had shown that Lucy had led a very difficult life. She had given birth several times starting at a very young age. Her bones show signed of rigorous physical activity like those who work a farm or a ranch. It was pretty clear that she had minimal medical treatment and no dental treatment in her life. They estimated her age at death was twenty-seven. Cause of death - natural causes. The investigate stopped there. They were at a dead end.

Lucy Snowland had similar DNA to the nine bodies found outside Quebec. The belief was that she was the grandmother of the eldest victim identified. Through genetic testing of the DNA the Snowland girls were diagnosed with Aicardi Syndrome. It is a syndrome that is passed from the mother to the child. It is almost always fatal in males either in utero or shortly after birth. It causes moderate to severe mental retardation in females.

The working theory was that Lucy was taken and somehow was the matriarch of the nine bodies found and probably countless others.

Ryan's head was swimming with all this stuff. "I don't know how you do it, Tempe?"

She kissed his cheek. "I eat right, and exercise. And I take vitamins."

"I don't mean that," he got up to get more coffee. "How do you ... why do you want to keep this kind of detailed information in your head."

"I don't keep it in my head. I have a good search engine."

He slid back into bed next to her. "Have you read Brennan's book."

"Books, I hear there are a couple. And no, I haven't as yet. But if you want, I can get you a signed copy. I have an in with the author."

"Why would you want to let this crap fill your day, and then go home and write about it in your free time."

"Money? Cathartic release?" Tempe shook her head. "Are you really reading her book?"

"It was at the airport. Thought I would check it out."

"And?"

"What? I have no idea if the science is right. Her characters seem pretty well defined - but I ain't no English major."

"Clearly."

"She has got this character in there that is the SPITTING image of Booth: Andy Lister. I mean down to the letter. There is some back story differences but pretty much it's Booth."

"Oh yeah? Do you have the book here?"

"Yeah, sure ...almost done with it." He pulled it out of his duffel.

"Pretty quick read?"

"I skipped the boring science stuff."

"Right."

"I don't know. You tell me. Is her science right? I mean I got you and Cold Case teaching me about DNA and shit."

"DNA and shit?" she mocked. "You just reduced twelve years of my education to 'DNA and SHIT'."

"Sorry, sweet cheeks, you know I respect you - now more than ever." He leaned over to kiss her.

"So what else are you getting out of this novel," she asked flipping through the pages.

"She's in love with the guy. TOTALLY in love with this guy. Booth couldn't have read it. It's so obvious that a blind man can see it. It's funny though. Her main character Kathy something or other - she is pretty clueless toward this Lister. They have great sex though and she gets pretty descriptive in those parts."

"You can read them to me later."

"I've dog eared the pages."

"I can see that."

"Makes me wonder."

"Wonder what?"

"Well maybe Brennan is pretty clueless toward Booth - that confuses poor Booth. He's a little too literal too; kind-of-a-say-what-you-mean-don't-play-games kind of guy."

"Well, No one does subtle innuendo like you do, Ryan."

"I am kind of enigmatic aren't I."

"Yeah, a real MYSTERY."

"Got you fooled."

"And how much time have we lost because of that?"

"You want to make up for lost time, doll?" He started to climb on top of her but she pushed him off playfully.

"So from this novel, what do you think about Booth and Brennan."

"Well it was written like six years ago. I think if you really want to know, you will need to read all of them. Why are you so interested?"

"I like her," Tempe said. "I want to help her. She is in some serious pain right now. She didn't have a mom or a sister to help her through the difficult years and I get the feeling she didn't have much of a baseline to draw from."

"And you want to be that Big Sister."

"Something wrong with that?"

"Not at all. Very magnanimous of you - IF you had your own shit in order."

"Excuse me?"

"You're a commitment phobe, Tempe. How are you going to help her open up and see what is right in front of her when you can barely do it for yourself?"

"You should be careful there big guy. Them's fighting words."

"Just trying to be honest."

"To a fault, apparently."

"Look, I like the kid too. And Booth seems like a good guy. But maybe they are oil and water."

"Maybe they are. Maybe they are oil and vinegar and just need to be put in the same jar and shaken up."

"Great, I'll get the lettuce." He shook his head. "Maybe they are lye and water and we could get a serious eruption."

"Or soap ... if it is done right."

"This is not our business."

"OUR business?"

"Yeah, I can't let you do this on your own."

"You think I'll screw it up? And I'm not going to DO anything anyway ... but maybe just help them ... you know ... get them into the same jar ... let them do their own shaking."

"Pure poetry," Ryan laughed at her. "Ok."

"OK what?"

"I'll take care of Booth, you take care of Brennan. If we get a chemical explosion rather than a nice vinaigrette, I am holding your responsible."

She kissed him and turned back to the book.

"Excuse me, you are going to read ... NOW?"

"Yeah, and get me the rest of the books tomorrow while you are out, OK?" She flashed a coy smile at him. "Honey? Sweetie? Lover boy? Lover MAN!"

"Fine." He laughed. "You read, I'll take care of Booth and Brennan."

She flipped to one of his dog eared pages. "Oh my ... Oh my ... OH MY!"

He looked over her shoulder. "Yeah, is that even anatomically possible?"

"One way to find out." The book went flying. It was time for the lab work.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N:** I just love Tempe and Ryan ... they are so much fun.


	10. Chapter 10

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 10**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **Ok Back to business.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth went through his morning routine as if nothing was different: teeth, breakfast, dishes, make bed, shower, shave, polished shoes, fresh shirt. He didn't get stumped once until he went to pick a tie.

_ostentatious - flashy - distinctive - maverick - rogue rebel - free thinking - leader- individuality_

All of that is defined with a TIE? It's a damn tie. He has at least fifty ties maybe more. Not all of them sent a message. None of them _**sent a message**_. They were ties.

Booth pulled out one from the left. Didn't matter. It was just something he had to wear with his suit. He liked wearing suits. He looked good in a nice dark linen suit. He felt professional, accomplished, to be taken seriously. It was lavender - the tie not the suit - with an abstract image that looked a little like a flower. Whatever, it was a tie and it went with black. Everything goes with black. Except ... the Cocky belt buckle was out of place - with the tie, with his mood, with the message he wanted to send. He changed it for a simple silver buckle that wouldn't be noticed. The socks were not considered either. Clean and matched was all he needed.

Before he left the house he checked his phone messages. He had been lying low since returning from Canada and didn't answer his phone. He did check the caller ID each time it rang expecting to see one name, but hoping against hope for another.

- Rebecca needed some health insurance information for Parker.

- Caroline called about a deposition.

- Dry cleaner

- Motor pool, he needed to bring the SUV in for maintenance.

- Cam, she had some information about the body found in the pet shop.

Nothing from Hannah. He had expected her to call. He hadn't decided if he would pick up if she had or not, but there was a little disappointment that she could so easily walk out of his life and not look back. Maybe she was just busy. It had been less than twenty-four hours.

Nothing from Bones either. That he expected. He expected nothing from her. After seven months he knew a lot about the nothing she sent his way.

_The phone works both ways, shrimp._

Booth looked around. That was his grandfather's voice. Something he used to say to Booth when he was young and brooding about something - usually a girl. It finally occurred to him - in the seven months they were apart - though she didn't write to him, he didn't write to her. He didn't call her. He didn't send her snail mail or a message by carrier pigeon. He checked his email daily to be sure - sometimes twice a day. And if he could, he was around for mail call. Nothing. Seven months of nothing. Nothing coming in. Nothing going out. He had some really good reasons for waiting for her to make initial contact. Really good reasons. He couldn't remember one of them at the moment. All he remembered now was the disappointment. But under that disappointment was a burning question: if he had initiated contact, would she have responded? If she had responded, and he responded ... how would they have endured the separation? Better? Worse? No change? If he and Brennan were chatting via internet or even snail mail, would he have fallen so hard for Hannah?

Water under the bridge. Regrets, he had a few.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan was completely off her game. She was out of shampoo. Her electric tooth brush took a dive. The coffee pot nearly exploded in her hands. She ran two pair of hose before she gave up and wore pants. Her hair wouldn't stop curling, so it got pulled into a pony tail and her car wouldn't start. By time she got to the Jeffersonian she was defeated. It seemed that the whole world was turning against her.

The only good part was that she had gotten to work early - very early - helps when you actually don't sleep at night. She had a suspicion before she left Canada about the remains found in the Pet Shop. She send that information to Cam who relayed it to Dr. Clark Edison, Vincent Nigel Murray and Wendell Bray. Their initial idea was not correct. Brennan could tell that from the X-Rays. The squints confirmed her theory. She told Cam and Cam offered to contact Booth. Brennan would have done it, but Cam offered. Angela must have spread the news. That made Bones sad.

She was up on the platform reviewing Hodgins findings (still on the Pet Shop case) when she saw Booth enter and make a beeline for Cam's office. His head was down, his step was quick. He hadn't been at the lab in months. What Cam needed to tell him could easily be told over the phone. Why would he come to the lab?

She would soon find out. Cam was out of the office that morning. She had a meeting with the board of directors about funding, staffing and equipment purchases. Hodgins was there too, purely as an observer. He didn't get to speak. He didn't get to interact with any of the board members. But it was open to the public, Hodgins was PUBLIC.

Booth would discover that Cam was gone and he would either call her, leave her a note, or come find Brennan for the information. Brennan decided not to wait it out. She went to find Booth to give him her report.

"Booth," she called as he stepped out of Cam's office. He was dialing his phone but stopped at the sound of her voice.

"Looking for Cam," he explained. "Something about the murder weapon."

"Yes, it's a screwdriver. But it would have needed to be thrust into the body with great force." She dropped into some overly detailed explanation but in the end Booth got that a really big strong guy who was about a foot taller than the victim had thrust _**with great force**_ a long screwdriver into the victim's chest probably nicking an artery. The victim bled out. There were also severe defensive wounds. "But it was not a gunshot as Wendell Bray had originally thought. The murderer would have to be at least 6' 7" tall."

"A long screwdriver, huh?"

"Yes."

"From a Giant or the center for the Knicks."

"I have no way of knowing what sport if any the murderer played."

"Joke." He smiled tentatively at her.

With something else to concentrate on Booth and Brennan dropped into a comfortable and familiar pattern of discussing the case. Brennan also reported that there were signs of long term drug use. She used technical terminology but in the end suggested that the victim has been a chronic user of amphetamines coupled with the damage done to his sinus cavities she suspected that the drugs were taken nasally.

"So a speed freak," Booth condensed. Brennan smiled and nodded.

At that point Tempe and Ryan entered the lab. Hands were shook between the men.

"Nice tie," Ryan nodded toward Booth. All eyes were on Booth for a moment. Brennan recognized it immediately. She had given it to him two years ago. He had never worn it. Conversation drifted to the Snowland case and Booth had nothing to add.

He looked at Brennan. "There's a chopper shop right next door to the pet store. Think those guys might know something about our vic." She cocked her head as if to ask for an explanation for 'chopper shop.' "Motorcycles, Bones," he explained. "Bikers and Drugs, like donuts and coffee. Think I will go see what they have to say."

Brennan was just about to say that she would get her coat, but stopped herself. Tempe may have been the only one who saw the struggle behind Brennan's eyes.

"Bikers?" Ryan's ears perked up. "I know a little something about bikers." Ryan knew a lot about bikers from both sides of the law and undercover. He owed the scar on his neck to a long neck Bud and a biker whose name he had finally forgotten.

"Welcome to tag along," Booth offered. "Purely as an observer."

"Naturally."

Ryan looked back at Tempe who gave him a look that said he volunteered too quickly.

"Good," Brennan said. She glanced up at Booth nervously and turned to head back to her office.

Tempe tried to help. "You know Ryan, this isn't a day at Disneyland and you aren't on vacation. We have stuff to go over here with the Snowland case."

"Right, Right." Ryan looked back at Booth. "Sorry, Booth."

"Booth shouldn't confront the bikers alone," Brennan announced with a plea in her voice.

"Just a conversation," Booth said dismissively. "No big deal."

Tempe looked at Brennan. "You know, you could go. I can certainly catch Ryan up on all that we found and we can get to work on the rest of it."

"Rest of what?" Ryan asked before being silenced with a look from Tempe.

Tempe continued. "We should be tied up here for a couple hours or more. Long enough for a quick chat."

Brennan didn't know what to do. Booth didn't leap to defend his solo run.

"It might be good if I do go. The murder weapon won't be easily spotted."

"Exactly," Ryan and Tempe said at once.

"Thought it was a screwdriver," Booth interjected.

"A particular kind with a notch out of it on the shaft."

Booth shrugged as if to say, 'if you're coming, let's go.'

"Ok, let me get my coat." Brennan turned and left.

Booth glanced between Tempe and Ryan. It looked like a warning glance but it could have been 'thanks for the help.' That was up to interpretation. Booth followed along after Brennan.

"Way to go, Ryan." Tempe scolded.

"Not sure _**shaking those to up**_ with a bunch of bikers is the best way to go."

"It's just a conversation, no big deal."

"Famous last words."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

The car ride over was a little stiff. They stuck to the topic of the case. Brennan asked if she could go to the site where the body was discovered before they contact the bikers. The way she said 'the bikers' made Booth smile. She could have been talking about a tribe in the Amazon or in the jungles of ... well Indonesia. She had such an interesting way of looking at people - very analytical. She wasn't judgmental and wanted to understand their culture. Before it had bothered him that she didn't have one world view - the RIGHT world view - as he did, but now he seemed to get it. She looked at everyone, every situation objectively. She had no preconceived notions.

When he first arrived home from Afghanistan he wondered if the news of Hannah would finally net a result from Brennan that would be consider normal (i.e. jealous). He couldn't have been more wrong. She was open and accepting, even friendly toward the new (now ex-new) woman in Booth's life. Why would she do that? Well, he could only of two reasons: she either didn't care, or cared too much. Why would she sever the partnership as he pulled further and further away from their friendship? There was only one reason: she cared too much.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan found herself thinking too much, talking too much and not waiting for a reply. She was nervous. She had meant what she said about severing the partnership, but it was just so natural to be with him, on a case, going to interview suspects and pick up information from a crime scene. Maybe they didn't need to break up.

He hadn't snapped at her, but then again he hadn't said much of anything. He looked tired like he hadn't slept. But that had become a standard look for him since Hannah showed up. He must have returned last night. Brennan again felt the urge to get out of the car, get away from him, change jobs, change locations, change everything.

Why was it so hard to be with him? He hadn't changed that much, or had he? Well the most important thing that had changed was that he was not always happy to see or hear from her. There were times she would call him and it was evident that she was interrupting. That hurt. It hurt a lot. Irrationally hurt. Could she be envious of Hannah's status? She was offered Hannah's position but she had turned it down. Was that a mistake?

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

They walked into the pet shop and asked for the manager. They were told that he was out. Booth flashed his badge and said they needed another look downstairs. The guy behind the counter, Ted, looked nervous but allowed them into the basement. Brennan was in full squint mode but found nothing else of interest. She did point out to Booth that there was a striking resemblance between Ted, the clerk upstairs, and the reconstruction that Angela had done of the victim. The two could be brother's. Booth had noticed that Ted seemed extremely nervous. Brennan noticed that he was having sinus issues, he had severe halitosis and his pupils nearly blocked his irises.

"Speed runs in the family?"

"There is something else," Brennan offered. "This shop has a lot of dust."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning the merchandise doesn't sell. The only pets in this pet shop were some kittens in the front window and they were feral."

"How do you know?" Booth asked, but then put up is hand. "Never mind. I trust you. So you think this is a front for drugs?"

"That is your thing, not mine."

Upon returning to the ground floor level, Booth noticed that the Ted was speaking in hushed tones on the phone and hung up quickly. Booth decided to ask Ted some more questions before he had to haul him in. Brennan walked around the store looking for something that would be the murder weapon. Ted was becoming very agitated.

Near the store front was the pen of kittens mewing and carrying on. Brennan was not normally a pet person, but she had liked Birdie, Tempe's cat. At least it was someone to interact with at home. She had picked up a kitten and was looking at it, when a large man came through the front door. She turned quickly and saw that Booth hadn't noticed him. There was a gun in the large man's hand.

"Booth!" Brennan cried out before kicking the large man with a round house to the groin. He doubled over only momentarily. And turned his attention to her. She kicked him again but he grabbed her leg twisted her around and shoved her into a rack of dog collars.

Booth had drawn his weapon and had it leveled on the large man and ordered him to drop his weapon. Ted, the little guy, picked up a case of canned animal food and smacked Booth in the back of the head. The gun went off grazing the large man's gun hand forcing him to fire the weapon before dropping it. Booth went down, his gun went skidding across the floor. Brennan did a summersault on the floor, picked up the gun and aimed it at the large man. He continued to advance. Brennan ordered him to stop, but he kept coming. She shot him in the thigh and again ordered him to stop.

"What the hell, Lady?" He was still moving toward the weapon he had dropped.

"Do you want me to kill you? I am an excellent shot."

The large man stopped.

"Get down on the ground. Face down. Hands behind your head." He did as he was told. "You too." She pointed at Ted. But then local Washington Police had heard the commotion and had entered the scene. Brennan shouted for them to call 911. She immediately placed the gun down on the ground and went to attend to Booth who had lost consciousness. She hadn't noticed in all the commotion, but she had been grazed in the arm.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan and Tempe entered the emergency room right behind Angela, Hodgins and Cam. Ryan honestly thought that they were trying to lose them in traffic and told Tempe as much blaming her for the situation.

"There they are," Angela shouted and proceeded toward the examining room where Booth was being attended to.

A nurse quickly told them that they couldn't stay and shooed them out.

Brennan followed them to the waiting area. Angels stood by her holding her hand. "Probably just a concussion. He lost consciousness for three to five minutes. They are going to take him for a CT scan, but he should be fine. Given his history," the words got caught in Brennan's throat. "He should be fine."

"What about you?" Tempe reached for her arm. "You need to get this looked at."

"When I know he is OK."

"Brennan this will need stitches and antibiotics," Tempe pressed.

"When I know he's OK," Brennan stated again.

"Go, sweetie. We'll be right here."

"Please," Brennan said. "You should all go. He will probably be released in several hours and you won't be able to see him while he is here."

They didn't want to but they agreed. Brennan searched the group. "Will one of you contact Hannah? I'm sure Booth will want her here and they will need to release him to someone."

"I'll take care of it, Sweetie," Angela volunteered. "Please go take care of your arm, OK?" It had started to bleed again. It was more than a graze.

Tempe stepped in like a good big sister. "Ryan you're with Booth, Brennan you're with me."

The others exchanged looks. _Who was this woman and how did she get to take control? _ None could answer that, but they liked her and they liked that Brennan differed to her.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Five minutes later Angela slipped into Booth's examining area. Ryan and he were discussing the situation like men - making light of it.

"Booth, sweetie, are you OK?"

"You know me, Ange. Hard head. How's Bones."

Angela shook her head implying that she didn't know. "Booth, Hannah's not picking up."

Booth looked down for a moment and then glanced at Ryan and Angela. "She is on assignment. You didn't leave a message, did you?"

"Just to have her call." Angela knew it was more than 'an assignment.'

"Thanks," he said. "You should probably go check on Bones."

"Yeah, I'll do that."

"She's a journalist?" Ryan asked when Angela was gone. Booth nodded. "Assignment, huh?" Booth nodded again. "Pretty big one? Out of the country? Probably a long one too. Won't be back for weeks ... months ... longer." Booth continued to nod. Ryan wouldn't force details, but he knew she would not be coming back. "Her idea or yours?"

"Mine - but right for her ... and me."

Ryan considered what to say next but the nurse came in to take him up for the scan.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan met Tempe back in the waiting room. "How's Brennan?"

"Little more than a graze, but she should be OK. Booth?"

"Well it looks like he had some sense knocked into him but I don't think it had anything to do with a case of Kibble."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

A/N: You knew they couldn't not save each other even if they are NOT officially partners. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you call a thing, it's still a thing.


	11. Chapter 11

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 11**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **Thanks to everyone who is reading, commenting, alerting and taking the time to discuss this story and the whole Booth/Brennan mess. I try not to obsess, but clearly i have some free time on my hands, time that I should be washing the bathroom floor.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"You need to take Mini-me home," Ryan stated.

"You don't think this is a perfect time for them to talk. If he does have a concussion he will need someone with him for the next twenty-four hours."

"OK Yentl, I know you think you are doing right by them, but as we now have evidence to prove -."

"I'm not matchmaking, but giving them time to talk."

"They're adults, pumpkin. You've known this chick for like a three days ... four tops ... you don't know the whole dynamic between them. And let's face it ... you're not good at this kind of thing."

"Just trying to give them time without the girlfriend around."

"Yeah, that." Ryan knew better than to out Booth. "Just take Brennan home, or back to the lab, out to lunch. I don't care."

"What're you going to do?"

"This is not a day at Disneyland for me, sweet cheeks. I have work to do. Need to go talk to the detectives in Crownsville, where the Snowlands are from."

"Do you need company?"

"You're giving up on Booth and Brennan?"

"They're adults," she said. But she knew Brennan was on her way to check with Booth's doctor.

"Then fine, you can come."

"Magnanimous."

"My middle name."

"Thought it was Trouble."

"My confirmation name."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth was released a short while later. Nothing was found on the CT Scan but he was told to rest and keep someone with him for the next twenty-four hours. He assured them that he was fine but needed to get back to work - namely he wanted to interrogate Can Wielding Ted and his Big Buddy (of course he was in the hospital under guard). Booth wasn't allowed in there yet.

**x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan had spoken to his doctors and was able to get an assurance that he would be fine. She assumed he would be going home with Hannah to rest and didn't want to disturb them so she left when she was released.

Back at the lab she was given the information that Ryan and Temp had gone to Maryland. Cam had wanted Brennan to go home for the rest of the day. Brennan was just about to do that when Angela came in to check on her.

"Can I just ask," Angela said. "I thought you gave that up."

"What?"

"Going out and interrogating suspects, going to crime scenes, basically being Booth's partner." She was mad. Angela always got mad when Brennan was somehow in the line of fire.

"He would have gone by himself, it was good that I went. He might have been killed."

"Ditto for you, sweetie."

"I'm fine, Ange."

"How was Booth when you left him?"

"He was waiting to be released. I didn't speak with him. Didn't want to disturb them."

"Who? Ryan and Booth. What secrets do they have that they shouldn't be disturbed?"

"No, Booth and Hannah."

"I never reached Hannah, and she hasn't called me back." She shifted her weight which was getting harder to do every day. "Booth seemed pretty put out that I called her. Said she was on assignment. I thought she worked for the Washington Press Corps."

"So you don't know if she came to get him."

"How would I know, you sent me home?"

Brennan sunk down into her chair. She was torn as to what to do. Should she seek him out? Should she leave him be?

"He didn't go home anyway," said Angela. "He just texted me to send over everything I have from the Pet Shop case."

"Where?"

"FBI."

"Thank you Angela."

Brennan grabbed her coat and scooted out.

"It ain't over, until it's over." Angela commented.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"Heard there was a little excitement this morning," Sweets said when he entered the observation room. "Is this the guy that shot you?"

Brennan was watching the interrogation; Booth had no idea that she was there. She wanted to ignore Sweets. Booth was having a very difficult time. She could tell his head was still bothering him by the way he squinted and touched the back of his head. Also, every time he raised his voice, he winced in pain. Ted got great enjoyment out of that. Booth's standard intimidation was not working.

"Why aren't you in there with him? Is this some king of tactic or is there something going on between you two?"

"Dr. Sweets, please," she stopped him. "I don't have time to entertain your psychological theories on the relationship I have or don't have with Booth. Don't you think you have done enough damage already?"

"Me?"

Brennan walked out of observation and into interrogation. If Booth were surprised to see her he didn't show it. Brennan sat down and proceeded to share the interrogation taking on the role of the intimidator cop. Little Ted didn't quite know how to take Brennan. She didn't ask the normal questions and he found himself saying things he knew he shouldn't say. It was ultimately revealed that it was his cousin, Larry, who was found in the basement of the Pet Shop. It was his other cousin, Daryl, the big guy from the store, who had accidently killed Larry in - what he described as - family fight. There was little more to be gained after another twenty minutes and his ultimate request for a lawyer.

Booth and Brennan walked out of the interrogation and smack into Sweets. "We need to talk."

"Not now, Sweets." Booth pushed by him escorting Brennan to his office. He ushered her in and closed the door behind him. He stood blocking the door mostly so people wouldn't see in, see his expression.

"What's going on, Bones? You say you want to quit this partnership, yet you can't seem to actually do it."

"I know this must be confusing for you."

"I think you are the one who's confused. Do you know what quit means? Do you know what sever means. It means ... you do your thing, I do mine."

"And what would have happened this morning if I wasn't with you? If someone wasn't with you? You need back up, Booth. And you shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be working."

"I have a headache," he shouted a little too loudly which caused his head to throb.

"You should be at the hospital."

"I don't need a hospital ... and I don't - I don't-." He stopped himself. He was mad, he was hurt and he was about to say something that he would regret. "Thank you Bones, for saving my life - again. It seems that we have enough to arrest this guy on and his cousin and put them away from a few years. Case closed. Thank you for your help."

"Fine." She was being dismissed.

"Fine."

"You're welcome."

"Thank you."

She studied him for a long moment trying to think of something befitting their last case together. "Please don't be alone tonight. If Hannah is out of town, please contact someone to stay with you."

He exhaled to release some of his anger. "I will," he said calmly.

She averted her eyes and stepped toward the door but he was blocking it. She stepped back. He moved to the left and opened the door. She slipped out.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth sunk down into his chair and put his head on his arms. The throbbing was intense.

Sweets knocked and entered. "Booth, we need to talk."

"No, Sweets, we don't."

"I would be remiss in my duty to the FBI not to address the tension that is and has been boiling up between you and Dr. Brennan."

"It's been take care of, Sweets."

"I'm your friend and Dr. Brennan's but in the interest of both of you and the FBI -"

"Sweets!"

"What happened this morning?"

"What are you talking about?" Booth was getting more than annoyed. "We were at a crime scene talking to a potential witness who turned out to be a potential suspect who invited the actual murderer over."

"You're a highly trained agent, how is it that you were hit on the back of the head."

"Read the report, Sweets."

"I did. I want to know what wasn't in the report. We you arguing with Dr. Brennan?"

"What?"

"Was you attention diverted because of some interpersonal issues that you two are not dealing with?"

"Sweets, it wasn't like that."

"Until I get you two in a room and are satisfied that there is nothing to impede your ability to do your job, keep yourself and the public safe, I'll have to recommend severing your partnership."

"It's not an issue," Booth said leaning back in his chair.

"I'll be the judge of that."

"No, Sweets you won't. Bones beat you to it."

Sweets was momentarily confused and then he understood what Booth meant. "Since when?"

"Two days ago."

"So why is she ...?" He turned toward the elevator wondering what she was doing there if she had severed the partnership.

"No clue." Booth leaned back and covered his face with his hands. But he did have a clue. He had a huge clue. She was there for the same reason he wanted her there. They were partners and despite everything else , they relied on each other to get the job done and for protection. There was a lot more, but that was all Booth would allow for himself.

Sweets sat down. "Tell me what happened," he asked softly. "I'd like to help."

Booth looked over at the young kid who still didn't look more than twelve. He was sincere. He wanted to help. The truth was, Booth could use someone to help him understand the events of the last several days, months, year and help him figure out what to do next.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"Maryland was a bust," Tempe said coming into Brennan's office. "Ryan is headed back to Montreal tonight."

"And you?"

"Would like to stay another day, if that's alright with you ... think there are a few more things we can learn now that we have the Snowland connection."

"Agreed. Will you use my guest room?"

"If you're offering."

"I am."

"Good thing I travel light, huh?"

Brennan nodded understanding completely about traveling light.

"So, how about a late lunch, early dinner ... I'm starving. Ryan usually feeds me two or three times a day when we're working together, but today was a little ... unusual."

The women adjourned to the Founding Fathers. They talked of the cases they were working and Brennan told her about the interrogation that netted a confession.

"May I make an observation?" Tempe asked.

"Of course."

"You don't appear to want to break up the partnership."

"I don't."

"Yet, that is exactly what you did."

"I did it for Booth."

"Did he ask you to?"

"Not in so many words, but since we have been back I have noticed changes in his mannerisms. Our intention was to pick up where we left off knowing that some things would change, but too much had and our working relationship was suffering for it."

Tempe took a thoughtful sip of her Perrier. "I'm going to take a liberty and offer another observation."

Brennan nodded.

"You're in love with him," she pronounced.

Brennan shook her head.

"His new girlfriend and his changes are forcing you to make an irrational decision for yourself and for your partner. Am I right in assuming that you did not discuss this first?"

"The partnership? Yes, we discussed it."

"You discussed it after you said you wanted to end it. That is not a discussion. I submit that it was not how Booth was treating you or acting around you that forced this decision, I submit that it was your own feelings which promoted it. Let me posit this hypothesis: Booth is not the only one who changed."

Brennan sat for a moment. "Yes."

"What did you expect when you came back?"

"I expected that we would reestablish our partnership."

"Anything else?"

"Booth had suggested that he wanted more a month before we parted ways."

Tempe was about to jump on that as another prompt for the Maluku separation.

"And I ..."

"You had decided that you wanted more as well."

Brennan nodded.

"That girlfriend blew a hole in your plans."

"I didn't have plans, just an idea."

"Still hurts doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"Hurts so much you want to be in another state, another country, another world."

"Yes."

"Well that's understandable." Tempe reached over and took her hand. "It's also understandable that you would want to break your partnership to hurt him as much as you have been hurt."

"No," Brennan protested.

"It's also understandable that no matter how much it hurts, no matter how serious this girlfriend is, you don't want to let him go."

Brennan looked down.

"Have I told you my history with Ryan?"

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Three days later late in the evening, Booth walked into Brennan's office. His typical swagger was gone. There was no bounce in his step or smile on his face. She looked up. At first she was nervous to see him, they hadn't had any contact since she left the FBI building days ago, but then she noted his demeanor.

"Can we talk?" he asked sincerely.

She nodded and got up from her desk and motioned toward the couch.

Booth closed the door behind him and followed her. She had expected him to take the chair like he always did; instead he sat down on the other side and turned toward her slightly.

"I've done a lot of thinking," he said. "I've had a lot to think about." He rubbed his hands together. "I've been an ass."

"Booth, don't -."

"Please, Temperance." He put up his hand to silence her. "Please just let me say what I have to say and then I will hear anything you want to tell me." He took a deep breath and exhaled again slowly. "I've been an ass and I'm ashamed of my behavior. I never knew what a partner was, what a best friend was until I met you. So much I have learned from you."

She looked unconvinced.

"I know you're brilliant with all this science stuff," he went on. "But I thought I really had a handle on the … what? … interpersonal stuff. Thought I had it all over you - hands down. Yeah, I can read people. I can tell when people are lying. I understand motives and human behavior. I don't know shit about science, but I know people. Or I thought I did. I thought I knew me."

Brennan was still not quite agreeing with what he was saying. He glanced over at her and saw her disbelief.

"I've never met anyone like you," he said taking a different tact. "You have the biggest heart. You're selfless and generous; honest to a fault and true blue loyal. People don't know that about you. I did. I do. I saw it right from the beginning."

Brennan took a quick breath in.

"But what did I do? I tried to change you. I tried to tell you that your way was wrong. That you were wrong not to want more. I pushed you to be someone that you're not. And you let me." He glanced at her again. "You let me teach you, counsel you, show you how it works ..." he chuckled. "In polite society." He laughed. "Now there's an oxymoron for you."

She smiled with him but not really understanding where he was going.

He rubbed his hands together and took a deep breath. "But when you didn't change the way I wanted you to, I got mad, mean, petty and vindictive all under the guise of moving on. I'm sorry."

"I think you're being a too severe on yourself. You were nothing but honest with me. I respect that."

"Honest? Temperance, I want you in my life," he blurted out. "I need you in my life. I just don't work without you. We have proof of that." He waved behind him referring to the events of the past several months. He turned to face her completely. "Would you reconsider and let us be partners again? Let us be friends again?"

Brennan let out the breath she was holding. "Yes."

Booth washed with relief and shook his head. "I would normally ask why. I would've challenged you for making such a simple answer out of a very complicated request. But I'm not going to. You know your mind, you know yourself."

Brennan shook her head. She couldn't agree with that statement. She wanted to correct him, but he kept talking.

"I'm going to consider myself lucky - fortunate that you would give me another opportunity to prove how much our partnership, our friendship, how much you mean to me." He reached over to take her hand.

Brennan took his hand in both of hers. "Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?" he asked.

"For giving us another chance. I wouldn't have been able to ask you. What would you say? I wouldn't have had the guts to ask you."

He smiled weakly.

"Though what intestines have to do with courage I don't understand." She flashed him a simple smile to let him know she was making a joke. "I know I have hurt you – repeatedly. It has never been my intention."

"I know. Believe me I know."

"I accused you of changing, but I was the one who had changed." She shook her head. She wouldn't go any further down that road. "We were good partners," she stated.

"We are the best."

Booth and Brennan held eye contact for a long moment and then both broke it at the same instant. There was more to say. There was more to ask for. There were so many feelings unaddressed. Neither one wanted to break the spell of that moment. Neither was sure if that was the exact right moment or the exact wrong moment to bring up those unaddressed feelings. If it was the right time, they could have had everything they ever thought they wanted. If the wrong time they could cause a rift in their reconciled partnership that would not be so easily over come next time. Could either of them risk that? Would either of them gamble for an unknown future with a reliable past? Booth wasn't a gambler any more. Brennan was a scientist who understood about change and its devastating effects. Nothing would be gambled, so nothing would be lost. How sad. Still - with so much to win, there's too much to lose.

Booth phone rang. They were back to work.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: ** And they're back ...Right, huh? Still, I think they can do better, don't you?

Comment here about the last winning and losing line. I totally stole it from the song "What Can You Lose" from Dick Tracy. It was written by Stephen Sondheim and performed in the movie by Madonna and Mandy Patinkin. I don't really do SONG FICS, but I really like that song. Seems to be a theme for many, many, many TV UST couples. Anyway, you can find it on YouTube if you are interested and aren't familiar with it or need to hear it again.

Lyrics:

What can you lose?  
Only the blues  
Why keep concealing everything you're feeling?  
Say it to her, what can you lose?  
Maybe it shows  
She's had clues, which she chose to ignore  
Maybe though she knows  
And just wants to go on as before  
As a friend, nothing more  
So she closes the door

Well, if she does  
Those are the dues  
Once the words are spoken  
Something may be broken  
Still, you love her  
What can you lose?

But what if she goes?  
At least now, you have part of her  
What if she had to choose?

Leave it alone  
Hold it all in  
Better a bone  
Don't even begin  
With so much to win  
There's too much to lose


	12. Chapter 12

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 12**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **Assume Ten Weeks have passed. Hannah is gone and hasn't come back but there has been communication between Booth and Hannah. We will see the scene in which Booth tells Brennan about how she left and the post-departure communication but it will be in flashback and not in this chapter. Assuming Two Chapters left of this little saga. Wanted to be done by Thursday, but I don't think that will happen.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"Hi honey, I'm home," Ryan called out as he let himself into Tempe's condo. His voice was less than thrilled, it was a phrase that she hated and had voiced it a number of times. It was just after midnight and he had been on stake out for the past six nights. He slammed into a stack of boxes and tipped them over. "Tabernac!" he shouted. He muttered along in French words too colorful to reprint.

There were boxes stacked in the living room, the hall and more in the kitchen. The place was way over crowded. It had been ten weeks since they had agreed to live together, agreed to find a place together rather than moving into one or the other's place. Ryan gave notice and moved out rather quickly. Tempe was dragging her feet but claiming it was because they hadn't found the right place (there wasn't a lot of time dedicated to the search). She was also planning on renting out her condo rather than selling it which caused a reaction in the Ryan camp. The words 'backdoor' and 'safety net' were bantered about in less than flattering tones. They worked through it – well rather they tabled it.

"You through?" Tempe emerged from the bedroom in sweats and a terry robe that had seen too many washings. The honeymoon was over. Birdie padded along after her probably expecting a midnight snack.

"Thought we were renting a storage unit for this stuff?" he barked. "Hey Charles," he taped at the birdcage and Charlie whistled back.

"WE are … as in I DID … but WE … as in YOU … need to find the time to haul this crap outta here."

He pulled a beer from the fridge. "Don't suppose you know when I will be able to fit that into my busy schedule?"

She reached around him to pull a plate of food out of the refrigerator and put it in the microwave. "No clue … but it will be your problem come Sunday."

"If that's for me," he nodded to the plate. "I ate." He took another swallow of beer and sat down on the couch to take off his boots.

Tempe pulled the plate back out and stuffed it back in the refrigerator. "Could've called."

"Could have done a lot of things including catching this asshole so I can get back to a regular schedule."

"That would be good too." She headed back to bed.

"You aren't going to stay up for ten minutes and talk to me?"

"You're in a mood. When you're out of your mood and have showered off the STINK of the stake out and that includes brushing your teeth, I'll be waiting for you in the bedroom."

"Suddenly my mood has improved." He got up to follow her.

"Don't get any ideas, bucko. I have to be at the lab at six – already missing too much of my beauty sleep for you."

He thought about making some super sweet remark about her beauty, but she was in a mood too. "Guess I should make that a cold shower."

"Good idea."

About twenty minutes later Ryan knocked and entered the bedroom. The only room where everything was neatly in its place including the half of the closet that belonged to Ryan as well as half the drawers in the dresser. It was easy to give them up since she was only there part time, she didn't keep much at the condo.

"Safe?" He entered wearing only a towel. That improved Tempe's mood.

"Always." The bedroom was the only place they didn't fight. It wasn't a discussion, it was just a thing. She was reading and trying not to notice him but it was hard not to. She was actually reading the latest book by Brennan. Birdie was curled up on Ryan's side.

"You still reading that stuff? Don't you get enough during the day, or do you just like to pretend that is your name on the cover?" He was pulling the stuff out of the pockets of his jeans and placing them on the dresser.

"God knows, I should write." She nodded to the jeans he just tossed on the chair.

"Out?"

"Burn them," she stated. He tossed them in the hall near the laundry basket. "This thing is still on the best seller list. I'll bet Brennan is raking in the cash."

"Do they get any better?"

"Her science is dead on and she actually writes a compelling mystery – a little gruesome in the retelling, but very interesting."

"How are Kathy and Andy Lister doing?"

"Well, they are far from happily-ever-after and it seems that one or the other of them is getting wounded or saved from imminent death."

"Familiar. Sorry Bird," he said scooping up the cat and placing him gently on the chair in a little blanket nest they had for him.

"But they still enjoy a very active sex life."

Ryan slipped under the covers next to her and pulled her close. "I can appreciate that."

"Four-thirty wake up for me."

"That gives us just under four hours."

"Not tonight, Ryan."

He rolled over on his back. "That's it. I'm gonna catch this guy tomorrow. I'm telling you tomorrow is the day. And he better not resist."

Tempe laughed. "Why? Because he's interfering with your sex life?"

"You bet your tiny white ass, buttercup. Do you know how hard it is to sleep next to you and just ... you know … sleep?"

She smiled at him not believing a word of what he was saying.

"I would have thought you would be out there with me looking for this guy by now."

"If I were … we'd never catch him."

"There's that."

"You do remember that I'm headed back to North Carolina on Sunday."

"I remember," he groaned. "Might have to fly down the following weekend. Won't put a cramp in your weekend plans will it."

"Would love to have you - as always." She stuck the bookmark in the book, set it down on the night stand, reached over to turn out the light and snuggled back so he could spoon up behind her. His hands were a little more explorative than would constitute sleep. "Stand down, sailor."

"Just trying to remember what I was missing," he whisper huskily into her ear knowing what affect that had on her. "It's been a long time, eh?" He settled in and they were quiet for a long moment.

"Brennan is coming up tomorrow." She said after a moment of quiet.

"Coming to get her book back?" he said sleepily.

"Wants to see what we've got on the Snowland case."

"Do you scientists type not understand the concept of a COLD CASE? We don't have anything."

"Easy there, big fella. We're not asking anything from you. Just the case file and I have already gotten it from records."

"Fine, waste your time." He eased up on his elbow and looked down at her. "Please tell me she's not staying in the guest room."

"There's no room for her in the guest room."

"I'll try to stop by to say HI before I head out to relieve the other team."

"That would be nice."

"Booth coming?"

"Don't think so."

"They work it out?"

"They're working together and she says that things are fine."

"Good, good for them." He yawned. "I need sleep, cupcake."

"Great!" she said. "Now I'm up."

"How up are you?" he kissed her shoulder.

"Not that up."

"Then shut up so I can sleep."

"Nice, Ryan."

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Angela picked up some files from Brennan. "So how long will you be gone?'

"Day or two," she said. "I'll be back in plenty of time for the shower."

"You don't have to throw me a baby shower."

"I understand it's a tradition and if I'm to be this child's surrogate aunt and she will be my namesake … then she will have the best."

"Sshhhhhhhhhhhh." She said looking out the door. "Hodgins doesn't know I found out that we were having a girl."

Brennan shook her head. "With the number of secrets you keep from each other, I wonder how long your marriage will last."

"Don't say that either. And we don't keep anything important from each other." Angela finally had to comment about the flowers on Brennan's desk. "Little early for Daffodils, isn't it?" Angela turned the beaker that the yellow flowers were in to get a better look at them.

"Booth said they were the first sign that spring was coming."

"Booth gave you flowers?"

Brennan didn't respond.

"Really?"

"Please don't read anything into it. He was at the farmer's market and they were there. It's no big deal. An impulse buy."

"That's our Booth, impulsive."

"He left them on my desk while I was in with Cam this morning."

"Then how do you know they were from him?"

"Cause he asked if I liked them when he called me for dinner tonight."

"Ah … flowers and dinner." She nodded approvingly. "Nice."

"Ange," she scolded.

"Hannah is really gone then?"

"Angela, I don't feel comfortable talking about details that Booth shared with me in confidence."

"Ok, Ok … I get that … but he was clear that she left and he does not expect her back."

"It wasn't an inquisition and I didn't press. He seemed rather sad about it. I'm sorry for him."

"Of course you are."

"Angela, he deserves to be happy."

"Agreed. You two seem to be spending a lot of down time together. Dinner again tonight - and not just a working meal. You went to the zoo with Parker last weekend. Movies. Museums. Flowers."

"Booth and I are partners – nothing more. Friends."

"Yet." Angela scanned her up and down commenting without words that she was dressed up more than she was that afternoon; a little more make-up, a different shirt, different shoes. So, not a casual dinner then. She touched the flowers. Brennan shook her off. "Right. Partners." She grinned and left.

**xoxoxoxox**

On her way down the stairs she passed Booth on the way up to Brennan's office.

"Hey there, Booth?" she greeted him.

"Wow, Ange. You are absolutely glowing."

She shook her head. "People say that to pregnant woman cause they can't say 'you're bigger than a house, how do you walk around like that?'"

He leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Not true. You're beautiful."

"Oh wow, you're in a good mood. You look - happy."

"I am. Case is closed – thanks in part to you – THANK YOU - and I am off for five days and I have Parker."

"If hanging with kids puts that kind of smile in your face, Booth, you can baby sit anytime."

"Consider me available." He looked up the stairs. "Bones in her office?"

"Ready and waiting for you," she cooed.

Booth waived her off and took the stairs to Brennan's office two at a time.

**xoxoxoxox**

Dinner was great. Conversation never faltered. The work talk lasted for the first five minutes then they were off on other topics. Booth was in a good mood, Brennan matched it. After dinner it was a little too early to call it a night considering that Brennan was getting on a plane for Montreal the next day they decided to take a walk and wound up by the reflecting pool.

"Tell me again why you are going?" he asked.

"Just to review what they have found and not found."

"The case is cold, isn't it?"

"Yes, but Tempe and I just want to review everything to see if we missed anything or if Ryan did."

"Right," he smiled at her.

"Come on Booth. Cold cases get solved all the time. It just needs someone -"

"Or two someones - with genius IQ's"

"To keep working it. I understand why the investigation stopped. It's only for a couple of days."

"Is Ryan working this thing with you."

"No, I understand he has a big case that he is working at the moment. Staking out someone. Tempe and I can handle it."

"No doubt." He smiled brightly at her. He was proud to know that she didn't give up on victims and that he had helped to give her skills to be a true investigator.

"It is just going over case notes," she told him.

"Of course." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Need some fresh INVESTIGATOR eyes on this thing?"

She leaned into him. "We would appreciate your help, but you have Parker. You should enjoy your time with him not take on Freelance work." She slipped her arm around his waist and they continued to walk together.

"Parker was asking about you ... will you spend some time with us when you get back?"

"Of course. He's a great kid."

"Wish I could take credit for it."

"He's your son, Booth."

"Yeah." Booth was proud of him. "He loves you too."

Brennan looked down wondering if that comment said something more that how Parker feels about her. "You still want to have another child?"

He looked back at her wondering if she was asking a different question. Her eyes were down so he couldn't read her expression. "With the right woman," he said softly and squeezed her shoulders slightly. "When the time is right." He wondered if he should return the question but thought he could get the wrong answer and he didn't want to hear it that night. It was such a lovely evening.

"You will be coming on Sunday, right?"

He winced. "To that thing for Angela and Hodgins? That's a girl thing."

"It's called a baby shower - though there will be no water. There will be other men there including Hodgins, Cam's boyfriend, Sweets and others."

"Other squints."

"Not all ... some of Angela's friends are artists."

"Great."

"There'll be lots of food. You don't have to worry about a gift. I have purchased several and can easily put your name on one to say it's from you. And you can bring Parker and slip down to the pool after the party gets going."

He smiled. "You've thought of everything."

"It's my job. I'm going to be an aunt." She smiled happily.

"You're going to be a great aunt."

"Please come Booth. Just make an appearance. It would mean a lot to Angela and Hodgins." She paused. "And me."

He couldn't resist her sweet plea. "I'll be there ... with bells on ... and I can bring my own present. Parker and I have already picked out something for the little bundle of joy."

"Not sure why you would be wearing bells." She read his expression and saw that it was a joke. "You know that they're having a female child - but no pink." Brennan didn't actually understand the correlation between girl and pink, but Angela had said it often enough for Brennan to repeat with authority.

"Yes, yes ... Hodgins doesn't know ... I got it." He released his hold on her and turned to face her. "How about if Parker and I come early to help you set up."

"It's not necessary," she said. "But it would be appreciated."

They had worked their way back to the other end. It was getting late. Brennan's car was to the west and Booth's was to the east. It was reasonable for them to part ways on that spot.

"Do you need a ride to the airport."

"No, thank you. I'm leaving rather early."

He nodded. He would have been happy to get up and drive her. "Ok. Well fly safe. Say hello to Tempe and Ryan for me."

"I will."

They stood in front of each other for a moment. It wasn't the first time at the end of a night that they found it hard to say good-bye, but she was getting on a plane in the morning. It need more than a 'see you tomorrow.' They each smiled and spontaneously they kissed and folded into an tight embrace. They held on for a little longer than they had planned but the kiss - as chaste as it was - scared them a little bit. Brennan let go first and stepped back.

"Have fun with Parker," she said.

"You too with Tempe," he said back. "Be careful."

They held each other's gaze for a long moment.

"I will," she said. "See you soon."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Saturday afternoon Booth was playing video games with Parker. He was getting his ass handed to him by an eleven year old and no he wasn't letting the kid win. His phone buzzed on the end table just as he was killed for the fifth time that session. He looked over at the number but it was blocked. Brennan should have been back that morning. She had stayed an extra day so he wasn't sure what her itinerary was.

"Hang on," he told Parker. He picked up the phone, "Booth."

"Booth, Detective Ryan here. We've got a situation." His words were sharp and clipped.

Booth's heart froze. There were a thousand questions formulating in his mind but the answer to only one was important. "Where's Bones?"

"That's the situation. Both Tempe and Brennan are not answering and no one seems to know where they are."

"How long?"

"It's been at least fifteen hours since they were last seen."

"I'm on the next plane." Panic was over taking him. He needed to focus. He let his training take over his actions while his brain told his heart that Brennan would be OK. His heart wouldn't listen.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: ** Come on ... had to know there would have to be some kind of rescue. If you are not a Kathy Reichs reader maybe you didn't see this coming, but for the rest of you? Please. New chapter soon.


	13. Chapter 13

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 13**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"I'm on the ground." Booth barked into his phone. He checked his watch. The plane was supposed to land thirty minutes before. It was now seven-ten PM. Brennan and Tempe had been missing for over to nineteen hours.

"Hôtel De La Montangne," Ryan barked back. "Le conducteur saura."

"RYAN!" Both stopped him.

"The cab will know where it is," he repeated correcting to English. "Nothing yet."

Booth ended the call and hailed a cab he spoke not a word of French but the driver took pity on him.

Booth put his head back and closed his eyes. He had been trying to convince himself that it was a misunderstanding. Brennan and Tempe probably got caught up in some research. Their phones were turned off. They were deep into whatever they were doing and didn't notice the time. It was an absurd thought. He tried to remind himself that Brennan was smart – smartest woman he had ever met and capable. She could take care of herself. He didn't know Tempe very well, but he assumed she wasn't some shrinking violet based on her career choice and choice of partner – boyfriend – lover whatever.

Nineteen hours was not enough time for the cops to get involved. Ryan had to be working under the radar and he must know something else. Booth tried to talk to him when he was waiting for the plane, but the connection was not good. So all he was left with was "last seen" and his imagination.

He thought back to their last conversation. He had called her back after he received a message from her. It was Friday morning. It was short. She had called and left a message saying that she hoped he was having a great time with Parker. That she and Tempe were running into several dead ends but wanted to stay with it for another day. Said she would be home in time to get ready for the shower. Booth assumed that meant Saturday late afternoon but was not given a new time for her flight. Booth's biggest disappointment was that he had made plans for them for Friday night – all three of them – to go to some Zombie movie that Parker had been talking about all week. When he called her back he didn't mention the movie or Parker's disappointment (or his). In fact he was just shy of short with her. "Fine, that's fine, everything's fine." FINE. FINE. FINE.

Nothing was FINE – Bones was missing.

_She had to be fine_. He told himself. _She had to be_.

He called Hodgins on the way to the airport. God he loved the squints some times. Hodgins response: "What do you need?" Booth told him that the minute he knew what he needed, they would be his first call. Hodgins didn't push, Hodgins didn't wig out. He was calm, cool and collect. Angela was not quite that easy. About a minute after he hung up with Hodgins, she called Booth. She ranted and raved, demanded to be called with any news. She even went so far as to say that Booth should have been with her if she was investigating a murder. Booth had thought of that himself. He understood her fear and her worry. He had it too. He didn't have her hormones. Before she hung up she had apologized, told him to be careful and to find her baby's aunt and bring her home safely. Booth had every intention of doing just that.

The taxi pulled up to the hotel. Ryan was outside waiting for him smoking. He had picked up the habit again on the stakeout but would quit again the second Tempe was safe. Until then he needed something to steady his nerves.

Booth paid the driver and tipped way too much. He didn't care.

"Booth." Ryan nodded taking another drag off his cigarette.

"Ryan." Booth returned. "What have you got so far?"

"They were last seen leaving this hotel about four AM this morning."

"For where?"

"Can't confirm that. We show Tempe's credit card was used at gas station about ten miles south of where we had our moose encounter. That was at six AM. We have people checking that area and as far out as we have estimated they could go."

"Right." Booth had also had Brennan's credit card and phone history pulled. It hadn't been forwarded to him yet.

"Look. It could be nothing," Ryan tried to sound reassuring taking another drag off his cigarette. "Tempe's car is fifteen years old. She could've had car trouble. Could be too far out for cell service. Anything could have happened."

"In which case we need to find them."

"Yes … true … but …" Ryan looked anxious.

"What?"

"This is a thing with Tempe."

"A thing?"

"She gets herself in situations … over her head … she has really good instincts and follows them without a thought for the consequences. After all these years you would have thought she would have learned something."

"Ryan."

"Most detectives don't make the connections she does." He took a final hit from his cigarette and dropped it stubbing it out with his boot. "Most blow her off and so she goes it alone. I can't tell you how many times she has been almost killed. How many times I've had to affect a rescue myself." He thought about lighting another one but stopped. "But this time I don't have a clue what she could possibly have found or where they went."

"Where were you this morning … last night … when they planned this?" Booth barked but he didn't mean to. It was a rhetorical question he had been flogging himself with since he got the news.

"On a stake out. She wouldn't call me on a stake out." He bit back he frustration. "I told her not to."

Booth had his own guilt. He didn't give Brennan a chance to talk the day before or she might have disclosed something. "Why are we here?"

"Brennan was staying here. Thought they might have left a clue in the room. So far nothing."

At that moment Luc Claudel, investigator _section des homicides,_ Communauté Urbaine de Montréal (CUM), pulled up with his partner Michel Charbonneau. He was a city copy, but Ryan had requested his help to get investigation going. Claudel and Charbonneau were familiar with Tempe Brennan and her penchant for getting into trouble usually about the same time she solved the case for them. Claudel had been the rescuer a time or two as well.

"La voiture a été trouvée," Claudel said to Ryan while eyeing Booth.

"They found the car," Ryan translated. He introduced Claudel and Charbonneau to Booth. It was hard to explain the relationship - a forensic anthropologist as a partner with a special agent from the FBI. More proof for Claudel that the Americans had no idea what they were doing. It was a waste of time to say that there were two Temperance Brennans. "Tell me." Ryan looked back at Claudel.

In heavily French accented English, probably more so to annoy Special Agent Booth, FBI, Claudel went into further detail. He said the car was found in a ditch twenty miles north of Grand-Remous. That was approximately two hundred and seventy-five kilometers from Montreal (one hundred seventy miles or three and a half hours for Booth). The window was blown out evidence of a gunshot and there was blood at the scene. There was no sign of either of the women, and it didn't appear as if they were in the car when it went into the ditch (no footprints or signs of anyone exiting the car). It was a dump.

Booth stepped away to make a phone call. He was back in moments. "You have the full resources of the FBI and the Jeffersonian institution at your disposal. It is amazing what can be mobilized when blood and gunshots are found. "What is the next move?" Booth knew what the next move was but he was trying not to step on toes. With the introduction of CUM he was not sure who had jurisdiction. The good news was that it seemed that Ryan and Claudel were accustomed to working together so there would be no jurisdictional battle. That was different for Booth.

Crime scene investigators were dispatched to the car to gather any and all evidence. Samples would be sent to both the SQ and the Jeffersonian. But the bottom line was if the car was dumped, then whatever happened to Tempe and Brennan happened miles from there. There was no way of knowing how many miles the car was driven.

Ryan remembered something. Tempe had had the car serviced the week before. They would have the mileage at the time of service. Several phone calls later it was determined that since the service to the time it was found in the ditch there were approximately four hundred kilometers put on the car that coupled with the time frame, they had a search area - a pretty big search area but at least they weren't running blind. Every available unit was sent to the area including a Search and Rescue helicopter. Agents were being mobilized from the Albany Field office and would be there in four hours. The problem of course was that it was pitch dark out there, but time was of the essence.

Booth and Ryan were going to head up to Brennan's room to see if they could somehow follow their logic; to find out at least where they were headed. It was all they could do until they got more information.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan sat in the dark working to release the screws in the wall that held the chain attached to her ankle in place. She had been at it for hours and was making some progress. Tempe was unconscious on the other side of the room. She had been injured and it was best that she sleep to recover her strength.

To keep her focus on her task, and to not allow her fears to runaway with her, Brennan thought of other places, other people. People that she had to live for: her father, her brother. She thought of Angela and her new baby and the responsibility of being an aunt. Of Hodgins and how proud and excited he was to be a father. She thought of Cam and the life she was building for herself - adopted daughter and a love interest that seemed very interested. And of course she thought of Booth.

Their partnership was once again solid. Their friendship was becoming something more. For the week after they became partners again, Brennan had stopped asking about Hannah, but she was a huge topic that was hard to avoid. Booth would ask her for dinner, she would decline. Brennan chose not to call his cell phone after eight PM at night or before seven the following morning. In one instance that was an issue. She had found some information on a case they were working and he needed to have it sooner than later. When he questioned her about why she didn't contact him, Brennan was unable to give a good response. She said she didn't wish to disturb him. It was then that he disclosed that Hannah was gone. He really wasn't trying to hide it from Brennan. He was just dealing with his own loss in his own way.

"It was best for her," he told Brennan over coffee that morning. "Hannah was very career driven. She was not ready to settle down."

"Should that not have been her choice?" Brennan asked. "She chose to come to Washington for you; she must have loved you very much." The pain was clear in her eyes as the words left her mouth.

Booth nodded. "I loved her too, but I loved who she was - free, happy, chasing a story, putting herself in god knows what situation to get the good interview, or disclose some horrible atrocity. She wouldn't have been happy limiting herself to U.S. politics. She's Canadian."

"You were her choice." Brennan pushed. She hated the thought of Booth thinking he wasn't enough for a woman like Hannah, for any woman. That was probably what he thought when Brennan refused him as well - that he wasn't enough. "You are an amazing man, Booth; kind, loving, generous - a good father, provider and protector. You would make an excellent partner in life." She swallowed hard. "Anyone would be a fool, an absolute fool not to see that and do whatever it took to secure and return your love." Her voice was cracking as she said it and had to look away.

Booth stayed silent for a long moment. "Maybe," he said. "But the reality is, I gave her an out and she took it. She didn't have to." Brennan nodded. "There is another reality," he said. Brennan looked back into his eyes. For a long moment they just read into each other's souls. Brennan thought she saw an echo of a look that he had shown her a year before. It was only there for a moment, a split second and then it was gone. It may not have been there at all. A call from work ruined the moment for them.

What followed was weeks of open communication, a lot of time spent in each other's company and fun. They actually did more than work together. Brennan was often included in events with Parker. Often on the weekend if there were no case, Booth and Brennan would go to a movie or a play or just meet and have dinner. Booth told her the day Hannah called. She said that she missed him but that it was right for her to leave - bad timing. Booth agreed. Brenna did not but kept her comment to herself.

Booth didn't explain to Brennan that he knew what he felt for Hannah. He had felt it with other women; Tess, Rebecca, a few others. He knew what he wanted with those women and he knew what their lives would be like. It was what he was raised to believe he should want in life. But he also knew what he felt with Brennan. He felt whole, connected, complete. He didn't know what that meant for him, for them but he knew it meant that needed her in his life. He hadn't told her that yet, but they had time. Until now - their time may have run out.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Tempe slowly came to consciousness. There was a pain in her shoulder that she hadn't felt in a long time. She couldn't move her arm. The room that she was in was dark and cold. She was lying on the floor which was dusty wood. She tried to sit up but her head throbbed. She groaned out her pain.

"Tempe, are you awake?" Brennan's voice cut through the darkness. "Try not to move too much. You have been shot. There is an entrance and exit wound. I have done what I can to stop the bleeding and have immobilized your arm. I am not good with living bodies or soft tissue."

Tempe tried to sit up but couldn't. "What the hell happened? Why does my head hurt?"

"There was an accident with the car."

"Oh no ... my Mazda." Tempe struggled to sit up again and found that her left ankle was chained to the wall. "What the hell?"

"We are being held." Brennan explained.

"By who?" Tempe couldn't remember the last twenty four hours.

"I believe we found Jack Grogan."

Everything came flooding back to Tempe in a flash. After two days working with Brennan they had a major break. They were reviewing the missing persons case of Lucy Snowland and the name Jack Grogan was listed. Then again the name appeared in a report that Lana Snowland had submitted years later saying that Jack Grogan had been paying attention to Lucy. The final connection was in Ryan's file for the nine sets of remains found. A Jacques Grogan was interviewed. Ryan made a note in the file that Grogan was not Canadian.

That was enough for Tempe and Brennan to start really researching the name. Brennan called Charlie at the FBI and Tempe called her contact in Montreal. The Montreal connection was a bit of a bust - no employment, no credit, no property owned, no taxed paid, not birth, no death, nothing.

Charlie came up with more but nothing current, nothing since 1939. Grogan was born in West Virginia in 1918. The family moved to Maryland in 1936. Grogan was in trouble with the police a lot in his youth. Never graduated high school or paid taxes.

They started positing that Jack Grogan had abducted young Lucy Snowland and fled to Canada. They suspected that Grogan had been the father of the nine bodies they found so that meant for some seventy-one years Grogan has been the patriarch. There was more to know, but it was a place to start. They found the address he had given Ryan and set off to speak with Jack Grogan. How dangerous could he be, he was ninety-three years old? They didn't know about Loni Grogan, Jack's daughter. She was simple and slow, but strong for a twenty something year old.

Of course Jack or Jacques Grogan was not at the address he had given Ryan but it was close enough to start asking questions.

"How long have we been here?" Tempe asked.

"More than twelve hours, not more than sixteen."

"Are you OK?"

"I suffered no injuries in the accident, but I am also chained to the wall."

"So, how are we going to get out of here?"

"Working on it," Brennan said. "I believe I will be able to work the screws out."

"Good." She pulled at her own chain. It was clear that these chains were old, but well used. Apparently the Snowland girls resisted their fate as well. She started doing what she could with hers chains. Tempe heard something in the distance. "Helicopters?"

"I believe that they are looking for us."

"They?"

"I suspect Ryan has noticed your absence and Booth will have noticed that I have not returned. That coupled with no response on our cell phones and -."

"And past history," Tempe snorted.

"Past history?"

"I tend to get myself in these situations," she owned. "Ryan has had to save me from psychotic killers, disgruntled lab assistants, coyotes - to name a few." She would have laughed if it were funny. "He's gonna be pretty pissed."

"Booth will not be pleased either."

"Yeah, they both have that White Knight thing going on."

Brennan thought back to Sweets book. It was not a good memory. "We can't rely on them to find us."

"No," Tempe said pulling at her chain. "It was luck we found the place."

"So we need to get out of here and send a signal."

"Where's Grogan?"

"I don't know." Brennan swallowed hard. "He said they were going to hang us at dawn."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth and Ryan were looking over everything they found in the room. Charlie contacted Booth to tell him about the Jack Grogan connection. It took Ryan a minute to find the correlated reference in his witness file.

A call came in from the crime scene unit working the car. They had found a laptop and some hand written notes in the woods away from the car. They had an address. All search efforts were redirected to that area. Booth and Ryan were on their way. It would be light soon. That should help.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: ** White Knights on their way, Damsels working their own way out of distress to meet them half way. Killers tying nooses. OH MY. Stay tuned.


	14. Chapter 14

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 14**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **_The Doctor in The Photo_ comments at end so you can ignore if you'd rather.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

The room was black as pitch. The only sounds were of the two women struggling against their restraints lost in their own thoughts, fears and determination.

.|.:_:.|.

Tempe was chiding herself. How many times had she gotten herself into a situation that had certain death spelled out all over it? How many times could she possibly expect to get out of those situations? There wouldn't always be Ryan, or some other law enforcement professional watching her back, to step in and save her or get her the medical attention she needed just in the nick of time. How did it all go so wrong so fast? They had told no one where they were going? They weren't sure themselves. They happened on Jack Grogan's little stretch of wilderness from something they learned at lunch from a waitress in a road side diner. Who would affect a rescue this time? Would this time truly be the last time?

Tempe thought of her daughter, Katy. They hadn't seen each other much in the past few months, but they talked on the phone regularly. Katy was not overjoyed at the domestic development between Ryan and her mother, but tried to pretend that it was no big deal. Katy, like most children, held out an unreasonable hope that her parents would reconcile. It was easier to forgive her father the multiple indiscretions up to and including the new wife that was only five years older than Katy than it was to forgive the mother for falling in love. Tempe never admitted - in so many words - that she was in love.

That thought sent her mind spinning in a whole other direction. The words _**I**_, _**love**_, and _**you**_ were not part of her experience with Ryan - Andy, Andrew. Why did she continue to call him Ryan? He had asked her not to. Made a joke about how his sainted mother had toiled over picking the proper Christian name. He had said that only his cop buddies - professional colleagues - called him Ryan. Clearly they were so much more that 'professional colleagues.' So why did she continue to call him 'Ryan?' She liked the name _Ryan_ better than _Andy_ but that's hardly the point. Was she still keeping her distance? Why hadn't they found a new place to live? Why was she dragging her feet? Why was she not planning on selling the condo? How many lifelines can you hang onto in a relationship before they just start getting in the way and cause more damage than good? Was she trying to sabotage any chance they had? Was she that much of a chicken? Did she honestly think she couldn't survive another break up? What was she missing by not trusting? Ryan was not Pete - he had proved that over and over again.

.|.:_:.|.

"Talk to me," Tempe said to Brennan.

"About what?"

"About anything." Her voice was trembling. She was actually scared. At least this time she had her namesake with her. "Tell me about Booth."

.|.:_:.|.

Brennan's mind had been full of a lot of things as she worked in the dark to free herself. Currently she was trying to understand how much pressure she needed to exert to pull her chains from the wall. But just like with everything in her life Booth was all over it. What would he say? What would he do? What would he expect that she would do? He thought she was a fighter, he had said as much. Said that her being a fighter was sometimes enough to get away. Maybe the chains were pointless and the real fight should begin when they were retrieved to be hung.

Hung? Brennan had never pictured her death. She imagined being gone, but she never actually considered the process of dying. She knew more about death than most people. She knew the pain and hurt that the body suffers. She could outline point by point, what happens in during a hanging. But she wouldn't. She couldn't. She wouldn't let her mind go there. Booth would expect her to fight.

The last conversation they had he was a bit short, curt even. She tried not to take it personally, but maybe she should have. She hated psychology. She hated relationships. She sucked at them. She remembered the last dinner they had together, the very nice walk they had around the reflecting pool and then that awkward, chaste kiss and embrace in their parting. It had seemed natural to kiss good bye, to do something more than smile and nod and turn away. But at the last second it was as if realized that what they were about to do was out of the ordinary, not natural and a first. More thought should have gone into it. The thing was she had thought about kissing him, but each time she shoved it away. She had her chance. The best they could hope for was friends, right?

.|.:_:.|.

"What do you want to know about Booth?" Brennan asked.

"What was the first thing you noticed about him?"

Brennan was quiet for a long moment. There were so many things to notice about Booth: the breadth of his shoulders, the narrowness of his hips, the way he carries his body. Those things she noticed about the man who came to find her at the American University. But the first thing she noticed about Booth was something that stirred something in her, something more than biological urges.

"Brennan?"

"When he smiles at me, it lights up his eyes." Brennan said in a far away voice that she wasn't sure was her own. There was a time when she thought he would never smile at her like that again. "We didn't like each other much when we first met."

"There's a surprise."

"There was a sexual attraction of course, but -."

"You never acted on it."

"No." Brennan repositioned herself to get a better angled to pull on the chain. "Which in hindsight is regrettable."

"Only in hindsight?"

"Booth believes in love, commitment, relationships."

"You don't?"

"I never did."

"Until you met Booth."

Brennan didn't respond.

"What color are his eyes?" Tempe asked.

"Brown," she said simply. She knew the color but it was his expression that touched her soul

"Ryan's are blue," she said not really expecting a response. "I have described them as neon, electric, ice, flame and too damn blue."

Brennan was confused. "I'm not familiar with 'too damn'."

"When he turns those baby blues on me, I melt."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth and Ryan were heading out by helicopter to meet up with the officers on the ground. There was so much noise they couldn't talk. There were only a few lights on the ground to guide by. It was like looking into the black abyss. It was no wonder Grogan was out there.

Ryan was just anxious. He didn't like helicopters – he rarely needed to fly in them. He was also anxious because they were moving fast to somewhere for something but he had no idea what. He knew Tempe. He knew she had more lives than a cat, but at some point they would run out. He didn't want to be the one to let her down.

Booth was totally out of his element. He wasn't up on the case, the area or the language. He had to rely on the SQ to do their jobs. Booth wasn't good at relying on other people.

A report came in. GPS had located Dr. Brennan's phone.

"Which one?" Booth and Ryan asked at the same time.

"Dr. Temperance Brennan," the disembodied voice came back over the radio. "DC area code."

It was about thirty miles from where they found the car and close to the location that was marked on the map they found in the bag with the laptop. Units were on the way. The helicopter would divert. Neither Booth nor Ryan was sure if that meant anything at all. But it was something.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Dawn crept in the tiny window of the room where Tempe and Brennan were being held. There were four cots pushed up against a wall and a small wood burning stove in the far corner, but it was not lit. Brennan was finally able to see Tempe's face. She wondered if she had the same terrified look that Tempe had.

"We aren't going to make it," said Brennan flatly.

Tempe nodded but continued to work the screws on her chain. Her fingers were bloody and the wound in her shoulder was bleeding again.

With her feet braced against the wall, Brennan pulled really hard and again and again and again. Without warning she fell back; the chain in her hand. She had freed herself from the wall. She dragged herself across the floor to where Tempe was. With the added strength and some exerted energy and Tempe was also freed.

Brennan helped Tempe up. She looked out the little window to see if she could see where they were. All she saw was woods and hills in the distance. Tempe had gone to listen at the door. Nothing. The door was not locked. Holding their chains up and as quietly as they could, they slipped from the room. A dark hall led to another door. They listened at the door for the sounds that Jack Grogan or his companion was awake. There was no sound.

Very gently Tempe opened the door and looked. There was no one in the room. The door on the other side of the room was ajar. They didn't hear any movement. They crossed the room to the door that lead out of the house.

The stepped out into the cold morning air – Brennan first, Tempe following.

They turned the corner at the end of the cabin. Off to the side was Loni Grogan digging a grave. There was a small body lying next to the hole. It was the old man. Brennan and Tempe exchanged a look. When did he die? Were they saved?

Loni was a large woman. Close to six feet, well over two hundred pounds of muscle. She had been working hard all her life. She didn't speak – at least she didn't speak to them, but she was strong enough to manhandle them. They watched as she Jack had barked orders at her that she understood, so she did comprehend. Was there any way to get through to her? With Jack Grogan dead she was free.

Beyond the grave they noticed three nooses hanging from a make shift scaffold. Apparently not. She would hang them and herself.

Tempe tapped Brennan's shoulder to indicate that they should move off around the other side of the cabin. They turned and Brennan tripped on boulder in the ground. She was back on her feet in a moment.

"RUN!" She told Tempe.

Tempe of course didn't.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

When Ryan and Booth got on the ground another report had come in. A waitress a diner had reported seeing two women fitting the description of the doctors Brennan. She reported the information that she had given the women about a man living up in the forest reserve.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Loni was bearing down on Tempe and Brennan. With a wide swift stroke of the shovel, she knocked Brennan back on the ground with a hit on the side of the face and chin. Brennan was dazed and the wind was knocked out of her but she did not lose consciousness. Tempe kept her distance as best she could, but needed both her hands free to defend herself so she dropped the chain that was still attached to her ankle. Loni stomped on the chain, reached down and yanked it back. Tempe was thrown on her back, sprawled on the ground being dragged by the chain toward the gallows grabbing at anything to prevent the forward motion.

Brennan struggled to her feet and stumbled after them all the while pleading with Loni that she didn't have to do what she was doing. Loni ignored her pleas, swung again with the shovel; with her long arm and the long handle of the shovel she cut a very wide swath. Brennan looked for some kind of weapon, but found nothing that would get her close enough to knock Loni down and free Tempe. The backward swing from Loni clipped Brennan in the hip and again she was down on the ground.

Loni grabbed some rope from the tree stump, flipped Tempe over and tied her hands behind her back with the skill and dexterity of a rodeo roper not heading Tempe's cry out as her gunshot wound again opened and bled. Loni wrapped the chain around her ankles. Tempe was immobile on the ground.

Loni turned her attention to Brennan who was struggling back to standing but was disoriented and stumbling. Loni again grabbed the chain around her ankle and dragged her back toward where Tempe was. Both women were echoing pleas and reason and anything they could to get Loni Grogan to listen. She heeded nothing.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth and Ryan were looking through field glasses at a clearing in the distance. They saw two people standing with ropes around their necks, hands and feet bound. A third person was laboring up next to them and putting the rope around her own neck. Booth looked to the tactical officer standing next to him.

"How accurate?" he nodded to the XM2010 sniper rifle in his hand. It was the same gun Booth used in Afghanistan. It was accurate up to just shy of four thousand feet. The kid looked like he was fifteen and terrified. "HOW ACCURATE?" he screamed again.

"I can ... Fifteen hundred feet … but I can't."

Booth took the gun from the kid and took a position.

"You aren't serious," Ryan stated. "We're over a thousand feet away." Ryan looked back at Booth. "Are you that good?"

A shot rang out. A second. A third. Ryan put the field glasses up to his eyes. All three bodies were down on the ground. At least they weren't hanging from the gallows. One started to move. She struggled to standing. She was a big woman; twice as big as either Brennan or Tempe. Her hands weren't bound. Her legs weren't bound. A fourth shot rang out. The woman fell to the ground in a lump.

"Yes," Booth stated. "I am that good."

Booth handed the rifle back to the kid who was dumbstruck. He set off running toward the clearing.

"Good to know." Ryan et al followed.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: ** _The Doctor in The Photo_ comments: Really wanted to love this episode. Think ED was pitch perfect in every scene. The directing and mood was perfect for what it was supposed to be. Thought it did exactly what they (the writers) wanted the show to do (in my mind) - Turn Brennan's world upside down for three days. But it left me with no clear idea that anything permanent had changed. Didn't Brennan say at the end that all she needed was three days to turn it all back around? How is that helpful? Isn't that a message from the writers to the viewers that it will be BUSINESS AS USUAL come January? I have a lot of other opinions tied up with this episode, but this is not the right place for it. Stand alone it was a great episode. As a game changer - only time will tell.

I hope you are enjoying this version of The Doctors Brennan. One more chapter - the wrap up - and we will be done with this little AU.


	15. Chapter 15

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Chapter 15**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **Final chapter - will they get it right?

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Tempe woke in her hospital room early Monday morning. She remembered everything. She also remembered that she didn't need to be in a hospital but _overnight for observation_ was insisted upon by the doctors. She was alone in her room. She had sent Ryan - Andy home when visiting hours were over the night before. He would have stayed but easily took the dismissal. Short of asking if she was alright and the details of how she found Grogan, and reporting about how they were found and Booth's sniper trick with the rope there was little discussion between them. He was sullen and quiet. That was never a good sign.

She reached for the paper that was by her bed. She had stayed up after Ryan left searching. Pen in hand, she made a few choices; good choices.

About ten Ryan knocked and entered. He was clean shaven, dressed in a suit and tie and on his way to court or a funeral - at least it wasn't hers. He still looked tired around the eyes, but good, really, really good. He brought her food (as per usual): donuts and coffee.

Tempe was up and dressed.

"Thought you couldn't leave until this afternoon," he said.

"I'm good to go." Ryan looked concerned. He had court he couldn't take her home. "Don't worry, I'll find my own way home. I need to check in at the lab anyway."

Ryan surveyed the damage: bruise on her face, arm in a sling, moving very slowly. She was hurt but he wouldn't be able to talk her into resting.

"Katy called," he said. "Wants to know if she needs to come up."

"I spoke with her this morning," Tempe said. She took a deep breath. "Ryan ... Andy ... Andrew." She sighed, none of them were right. "I'm sorry."

He shook her off.

"Andy," she made sure she had his attention. "I am really sorry. I know better."

He smiled and shook his head. "We're just going to give you a badge and a gun and a permanent body guard."

"Who's we?"

"SQ, CUM, LSJML ... we could probably get the FBI in on it too for when you're in Charlotte."

Tempe was supposed to leave the day before to head south. It would be another three months before they were living in the same city and Ryan and Tempe didn't do the phone very well.

"I pushed it a week," she said. "I don't have to be at UNCC until next Monday."

He nodded.

"You have court?" she nodded to his attire. "Can we have dinner tonight? At home. I'll cook."

"Sure." He was moving toward the door. "Don't have to be back on the stake out until tomorrow as six AM."

"Ryan - Andy," she corrected. He smiled at her struggle. She was who she was, there was no changing that. "Here, take this with you ... look through it while you are waiting to testify." She thrust the paper at him.

Ryan looked down. It was the classified section with circles drawn around several listings for houses and condos. They were a little higher than their price range. He looked a question at her.

"The condo is paid off ... we'll have a lot to put down on a new place," she explained. "I'll call a listing agent today."

"Tempe." He shook his head. "You didn't do anything wrong ... well any more wrong than you usually do." He held up the paper. "If you aren't ready for this ..."

"I am," she protested.

"We'll talk."

"I want this, Ryan," she protested again. "Andy."

He laughed and took pity on her. He took her in his arms being very careful about her shoulder. He placed a kiss on her temple, her cheek and finally her lips.

She looked up into his too damn blue eyes. "I want this."

"This wants you, too," he said with as much bravado has he could muster. "But it will have to wait until after court."

She nodded.

He kissed her again and only released her hand when he had to. "Gotta go."

"See you later?"

"Sooner."

"Hey ... about my car."

"Oh that's totaled," he waved her off and slipped out of the room.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth finally dragged himself from bed early Monday morning - he hadn't slept but it was time to get up. The night was spent tossing and turning reprocessing the events of the past thirty-six hours - and one event in specific.

They were able to leave on Sunday night. Other than some minor injuries, there was no medical reason Brennan needed to stay in Montreal. They had talked on the plane ride home about the case, about Grogan and his "family". He had abducted Lucy Snowland when she was sixteen the details of what happened between 1939 and 2010, where and how they lived, how and when they got to Canada will only be known to Grogan and his descendants. There was little left behind to give the history. But the evidence painted a pretty sad story of kidnapping, imprisonment, and generations of rape, incest, genetic disorders and isolation that lasted for over sixty years. It was tragic.

Booth was unnerved that he was able to drop by into sniper mode without blinking an eye. There was no doubt in his mind when he pulled the trigger that he would hit what he was aiming at. No fear that he had lost his touch. No concern that he might be off his mark and kill Brennan or Tempe rather than save them. There was no time to think, but there was also no reason to second guess. Booth was a sniper. His training officer - back in the day - had said he was born to be a sniper, it was in his blood. That was who he was. Booth was born to be a killer? He couldn't accept that.

He tried to find solace in the fact that a skill that had caused him so much anguish was able to be used to save the lives of two women (one of them being his partner, his friend, his ...), but he had to kill a third. It was a split second decision, he didn't regret it, but he hated that it was so easy for him.

What bothered him the most was the look in Brennan's eyes when he had finally reached her. She was grateful, impressed but she was also scared. She now had experienced Booth the Sniper. She had seen him kill in the past, she had done it herself. She knew him, knew he would only take a life when his own or his partner's was in imminent danger. That's what he had done this time too. But he still saw fear in her eyes. Was it the fear that he really was a cold, calculating, stone hearted sniper? No.

No, Bones wasn't looking at him like that. Her fear was not of him it was for him. She knew him. She knew his soul. No one had ever known him like that before. He resolved to do whatever it took to get her to see how much he loved her and what a life they could have together.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan arrived back at the condo sometime around three PM. He was done with his testimony and free for the day. When he walked in he was stunned by the look of the place. His boxes were gone. The house was neat. There was an awesome smell coming from the kitchen.

"Luuuuuuuucy," he called. "You have some splaining to do."

Tempe came from the bedroom. She wasn't quite dressed, her hair was wet. "You're early." She stepped up to kiss him quickly before retreating to the kitchen. "Beer?"

"Sure." He warily pulled his tie loose. He looked into the stew pot on the stove. "Lamb Stew?" His favorite. He took the beer and leaned against the counter next to where she was working making a salad. "So, how was your day?"

"Good. Really good. I'm feeling much better."

"I'm sure the drugs are helping."

"They are." She touched his arm as she reached around him for the towel that was on the counter.

"So, the place seems kind of empty." He nodded to the obvious lack of STUFF.

"Yeah, we can walk in here finally."

"Threw them out?"

"Storage unit. Hired a couple guys, took them just over an hour."

"I see." He took another hit from his beer. "I looked at those listings you circled ... you really think we need a three bedroom?"

"Sure," she said easily without any indication that she was going to elaborate. "I wasn't expecting you for an hour or so, but we can eat now if you like."

"No," he said. "What I would like is for you to tell me who you are and what you have done with the REAL Temperance Brennan."

"I'm in a good mood. Is that really so rare?"

"Yes."

"Thanks."

"Hey, I don't care ... just saying this Donna Reed bit is a little ... you know ... spooky."

"Donna Reed huh, not June Cleaver?"

"Donna Reed was hotter."

"Next you are going to tell me that you liked Maryanne better than Ginger."

"Was partial to Mrs. Howell."

Tempe rolled her eyes but kept working and kept the smile on her face.

"OK ... enough is enough." He stopped her salad making by carefully taking the knife out of her hands, and led her to the living room. "Sit." He sat down on the coffee table in front of her. "What's going on in that brilliant head of yours?"

She sat for a moment before she said anything. Ryan waited. "Just trying to do something nice."

"Tempe I'm not pissed off."

"You shouldn't be."

"I'm not."

"You have no reason to be."

"You'll know when I am."

"I usually do."

"So why all this?"

"Being nice? You saved my life - again."

"Habit ... though this time you owe it to Booth."

"You got him up here."

"One of these times you may not get the save."

"I know."

"Do you know how I feel about that?" He didn't wait for her to respond. "It scares the hell out of me."

"Puts me a little on edge too."

"Good."

"This one came out of the blue. We had no expectation - "

"They always come out of the blue, Tempe."

"I know." She was about to open her mouth and defend herself. Ryan stopped her.

"Look. You are who you are. I don't want to change that. I just want you to be more careful. I know about danger. I'm a cop. I'm a damn good cop. I carry a gun and I know every day that something could go down. So I am prepared. Every minute of the day I'm prepared."

"I'm not a cop."

"But you play one on TV," he joked. "Seriously, you say you are not a cop yet you go chasing down leads like a cop and it gets you into trouble every damned time. I don't want you to change. I don't want to say you have to call me or anyone, but ..."

"But what?"

"I look at Brennan and Booth."

"She's not a cop either."

"But they are partners in the real sense of the word. They have each other's backs. They don't go off on their own."

"OK, Ok ... I get it."

"I hope you do."

She nodded.

"But that is not what this is about," he continued. "Is it?"

She shook her head.

"The boxes, the dinner, the real estate listings ... what else?"

"There's dessert - flourless chocolate cake and ice cream ... and you were gonna get some tonight."

"Oh, I like the sound of that." He waited watching her struggle to find what to say next. "Tempe?"

"Just think it's time we ... you know ... shit or get off the pot."

"Very romantic."

"I really ... really ... really." She fought against herself. "Like - I love you."

"Is that what this is about?" He grinned flashing his baby blues on her.

"Don't make fun of me."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He took her hands. "So a three bedroom house. Is there a picket fence and a dog?"

"We need three bedrooms and it doesn't have to be a house."

"Why three?"

"Guest room."

"And one for each of us?"

"And one for Lily."

"You want her to come live with us?"

"I want her to feel welcome if she does come. She needs to know that she has a home with you."

"Thank you." He was truly touched.

"Your family is my family - isn't it?"

"Yes ... ditto for you." He smiled. "Including your ex-husband and his pre-pubescent bride."

"I can't be so generous." She said referring to Lily's mother.

"Actually I can't either." He kissed her. "So dinner - an hour away?"

"I could put it on simmer ... would keep all night."

"Always did like dinner for breakfast ... in bed." They kissed again and he pulled her to standing and started their way toward the bedroom.

"There's one thing."

"Oh?"

"I really hate the name Andrew or Andy or Drew."

"My mother will be crushed."

"You don't care?"

"Call me anything your heart desires, Lamp Chop."

"Oh God, the stew." She pulled herself from him and ran back to the kitchen.

Ryan came up behind her wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. He kissed her neck and let his tongue tickle her earlobe. Tempe made another decision. This would be her last semester at UNCC and she would accept LaManche's offer. She would probably change her mind in the morning, so she would keep that little decision to herself, but it was nice to think about. She turned in his arms and kissed him back.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Monday night, Brennan and Booth had plans for dinner. Brennan heard the knock from her bedroom. She knew it was Booth. She was expecting him, but not that early.

She had been thinking about him all day and most of the night before. She knew how much he hated when he had to take a life. Her heart literally ached that he had to do that for her. When he told her what happened she saw in his eyes that he was more than slightly affected. She wondered how he was handling it. So much had happed to Booth in the past year or so: finally admitting feelings for her, being refused, going to Afghanistan, falling in love, losing his partner, losing his girlfriend - it was a lot for one person to handle.

They were getting their partnership and friendship back. Better than it was before. There were feelings that she didn't want to deny anymore. She made a decision and she would broach him on it that night.

"Booth," she said stepping back to allow him to enter.

Booth was still a little off kilter but it calmed him to be with her. "I'm a little early."

"That's OK." She closed the door behind him. "Drink?"

"Sure."

She poured them two scotches and they went to the living area.

"You OK?" she asked. "I mean I know how much you dislike -."

"I'm OK," he said. "Will probably have to go back to Montreal in a day or two, but Ryan is doing what he can. He's a good man."

"As are you."

"Thank you." He didn't want to accept that compliment.

"Booth, I need to tell you something ... I'm not sure if this is the right time, but I have no one to ask but you." Her demeanor was subdued matching his.

"Go on." 

She hadn't really thought of what she was going to say or how she was going to say it so she just started talking. "I value you as a partner. I trust on you as an advisor. I cherish you as a friend." She paused.

"I feel the same way." He wasn't sure where it was going.

"We have had a rough time in the past year, but I think our partnership and friendship has survived - and we are better for having gone through that experience - stronger."

He nodded. "I would agree with that."

"You will have to tell me if the timing is wrong or if I am wrong."

"I don't understand."

"I want more."

"More?"

"More than our partnership, our friendship. I don't want to lose those and I do understand that there is a real possibility that we might if we try to alter the nature of our relationship, but I think it is a reasonable next step - and it is something that I want."

"To try?"

"No, I expect to succeed."

Booth shook his head. "I'm not sure what you are asking."

"I don't know what to say." She looked nervous. "I want us ... I want to ..." She exhaled and tears were welling up in her eyes. "Booth, I love you. I'm in love with you. I want us to be together ... in fifty years."

His somber look melted into a soft smile. "Wow."

"What?" She looked down and away. "If it is too soon after - or if you aren't interested. If it is too late. I understand."

"Bones." He took her hand in his. "Stop ... stop ... just stop." He brushed some hair off her face. "It's not too soon. It's not too late." He leaned in and kissed her. "Finally, the same page."

"I don't know what that means."

"Of course you don't." He kissed her again. "Don't worry, Bones. We have the rest of our lives and I can't imagine anything I would like better than to explain every idiom and saying there is."

"Nothing?" She smiled. "I would have thought that you would prefer something more non-verbal." She kissed him and pulled his tie loose.

"The best kind of communication."

They wouldn't make their reservations but they wouldn't go hungry - not any more, never again.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: ** Thanks to all of you for taking this little side trip with me. I got to play with Ryan and Tempe in ways that Kathy Reichs doesn't seem to want to play with them and they same for Brennan and Booth and Hart Hanson. That's what's good about FanFixtion. We get to do what we know the writers won't do for reasons that sometimes are beyond our understanding. Who knows best? Doesn't matter because we get both - or in this instance, all three - Books, Show and FanFixtion.

If you have taken this journey with me and haven't read the books, please check them out. Tempe and Ryan are not Brennan and Booth (as this story should have told you) but they are fun in their own rights. If you haven't watched the show (and I know of at least one of you that hasn't) start with season one and maybe by time you're caught up the drama that is the sixth season - it will all be written with a happy ending.

Many thanks to Kathy Reichs and Hart Hanson for giving us these characters to love, route for, learn from, live with, laugh with, cry with and get really pissed off at. HA! HA! Happy Holidays to all - here's to the next Book, or Episode or Piece of Fan Fixtion that makes us feel - 'cause whatever we feel is better than not feeling at all. Truer in life than it is in fantasy.


	16. Epilogue  Nine Months later

**Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan**

**Epilogue**

**By LizD**

**A/N: **Felt the need for a little Holiday Cheer. Just a little somethin-somethin to tie this little story up with a bright and shiny Christmas bow. Have your insulin shot and tooth brush ready when this is over. SUPER long, could have probably edited but it was fun. Please enjoy. Comments are nice.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"Booth."

"Ryan."

The men shook hands like old colleagues. They had neither seen nor talked to each other since March after the incident in Montreal was wrapped up. Ryan was very helpful in facilitating that. Though Booth was FBI he was a guest in the country, shooting and killing within the Canadian borders was not something that was going to get swept under the rug. The fact that Booth had special skills that no one else on the team had was in his favor. To be honest the court had a harder time with the fact that there were two forensic anthropologists named Temperance Brennan; so they were a bit distracted.

"Merry Christmas," Ryan added cheerfully.

"Yeah that."

Booth was in a bad mood trying to be in a good mood. The Christmas spirit was not full on him and there were two very good reasons. The first came from Rebecca; she did it again. She made arrangements for she, Parker and her latest boy toy Jack to spend the holiday in Vermont Skiing. Apparently it was Rebecca's dream to be in Vermont at Christmas (she must have watched White Christmas too many times as a kid). The difference this year was Parker really wanted to go. They included his best friend and a new snowboard. There was no way Booth could dash Parker's excitement about going so he sucked it up. He had to get used to the idea that his son was growing up and would want to do more things with friends than with his father. He was frustrated about how much time he lost with his son: the first ten years due to his mother, the rest would be Parker himself. He vowed he would never find himself in that situation again.

The second hit was from Brennan. It was the first year that he and Brennan were a couple for Christmas and for some odd reason he thought they would do all that normal Christmas stuff: tree, presents, carols on the spinet, chestnuts roasting on an open fire (or something like that). But Brennan was in no way a traditional person. He should have known that from the first five and half years. And after the last nine months of knowing her intimately, he should have grown accustomed to her ... different approach to the everyday. Brennan still didn't look forward to the holiday (as per usual) regardless of her new couple status. He tried to convince her that they could make some new traditions and she agreed in words if not in spirit.

With Parker out of town, it had opened up the possibility of Booth accepting a holiday trip. Brennan had floated her standby Christmas locals (Peru, Chile and Turkey), but Booth nixed those quickly. Then there was the suggestion that they also go skiing in Vermont (Brennan hated that idea); luckily Booth had no intention of intruding on Rebecca's Christmas. For a fleeting moment the idea of going with Russ and his family to the Magic Kingdom in Florida was discussed. Max was going too (he liked being a grandfather). It was quickly dismissed by both Booth and Brennan. About three days before the holiday, Brennan mentioned that they had been invited to Hilton Head, South Carolina to spend the week with Tempe and Ryan on the beach at Tempe's friend Annie's house. Booth thought 'what the hell, no reason to stay home.' The packed and left within two hours.

"Headed out for a run on the beach," Ryan said cheerfully. "You up for it"

"Yeah, I could use a good run."

Booth had to interrupt the Doctors Brennan to tell them he was going with Ryan. He really didn't need to bother. They probably wouldn't have noticed he was gone. They were deep into some new breakthrough in laser something or other. Ryan and Booth just shrugged. Booth picked a bedroom (there were four left after Ryan and Tempe took that master) and put their luggage down. He quickly changed and met Ryan and Boyd on the beach. Boyd was a chow that seemed to be way too happy for Booth's tastes but he was clearly ready for a run. Booth was not really a pet person.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Brennan and Tempe had only gotten closer in the past nine months. There were a lot of emails, phone calls, and actual consulting on each other's cases. Finally both women had someone to talk to on the same level scientifically. It was nice for each of them. They were more like sister/colleagues.

The topic of conversation between the doctors changed almost immediately after the door closed behind the men-folk.

"So, how are you and Booth?" Tempe started. They talked very little about their respective partners in the past because communication was primarily about some science or other.

Brennan thought for a long moment. "Booth gets very sentimental at this time of year. He has a son, it's understandable. I'm not. It's been difficult to find a compromise where we're both comfortable."

"Is that true about more than Christmas?"

"We are still very consumed by our work. We have been able to continue working together even though we are romantically involved – it has not been publically announced. I don't see that there are any conflicts with the more intimate relationship."

It wasn't lost on Tempe that Brennan didn't answer her question. "You don't think he's more protective? That you are? Or worse, that the familiarity will make you more careless in dangerous situations?"

"No, Booth has always put safety first; he has taught me well. I think we actually work better together now than we did before, but that could just be the passage of time; thought I do find that I can anticipate his actions more now than I did before."

"How is it being together so much? All day at work and then at night."

"We spend much of our days apart if we are not working a case. And he and I each maintain our own home. So we only spend evenings together occasionally."

"Occasionally?"

"To be fair, we probably spend one or two nights a week apart if we are not working a case."

"Do you have any time for fun?"

"I find our sex quite enjoyable." Brennan smiled thinking that that was putting it mildly. "Booth would probably prefer I not share that."

Tempe smiled too. "What about fun fun? Do you take trips? Or lock yourself away on weekends and watch old movies? Do you go out on dates? Have you taken up any hobbies together? Talk about something other than work? Do you talk about a future?" Tempe was grasping at straws as Brennan didn't look like she understood her questions.

"Our time is pretty focused on work. Booth has Parker every other weekend. Sometimes I'm with them, sometimes it's just a boys' weekend and they stay at Booth's apartment."

"Have you talked about living together?"

"Are you advocating that now? From my understanding, you had refused to cohabitate with Ryan for many years and it caused you two to break up for a time."

"Well, learn from my mistake, grasshopper."

"Grasshopper? I don't understand."

"Never mind.

"Has the change in your living arrangements improved your relationship?"

"Ryan and I have never been better. We love our house. Ryan likes being a land baron and walks the property every night when he gets home regardless of the time. We have a list of projects that we want to do and have resigned ourselves that it will be years before we're done. Ryan's pretty busy at work but he makes time for himself and for us. Sometimes we work together, sometimes we don't but we usually consult on the cases we are working - off the record. But we don't let work be all that we are about. We never really were ALL WORK AND NO PLAY. We really do enjoy each other's company and make each other laugh. It's very nice. Different from what I had with Pete - a lot less pressure."

"Could that be because you are not legally bound to each other?"

"Legally bound? – oh you mean marriage. No, I won't be doing that again - ever and Ryan never has. There is no reason to think that will change. I honestly think it's age. We have both been around the block a couple of times and we both realize that having someone to talk to is more important than just about anything else. To know that you have someone on your side and to be on theirs is invaluable."

"So you are saying that you have lowered your expectations."

Tempe laughed. "I would rather think that we have gained wisdom. It's not all sunshine and buttercups. He has some really annoying habits and his work hours are insane. There have been several days in a row when we do little more than leave notes for each other in the kitchen. He hates that I still split my time between Montreal and UNCC but tolerates it. Lily is a problem, but she's getting better. She was supposed to join us here for Christmas but she backed out at the last minute. That was a pretty big fight between father and daughter. Ryan and I don't always agree on how to manage her but I defer to his opinion after I have shared mine - whether he wants to hear it or not. She spends much of her time with us, so it's not unreasonable for me to have an opinion. I imagine it's like you and Booth and Parker."

"We don't talk about parenting. I think Booth is an excellent father. My only concern is that sometimes he would rather lie or evade a topic to spare himself or Parker an uncomfortable conversation. Most of the time he makes more out of it than it needs to be."

"Sounds normal for a weekend father. They like to protect their time and be more friends than parents."

Brennan nodded.

"Have you thought about kids?" Tempe asked.

Brennan got a little uncomfortable, but decided truth was best. "A couple of years ago I had started the process to be inseminated with Booth's sperm."

"I'll bet there's a good story to go with that."

"Yes … a book in fact, but I deleted it. We would not have been co-parents. Complications arose and I never broached the subject with him again. Obviously now it would change our relationship."

"Obviously." Tempe loved Brennan's understatements of the obvious. "It would have back then too."

"I didn't see why it had to at the time, but ..."

"You do now?"

Brennan nodded.

"Would that be a bad thing?"

Brennan shrugged a 'no'.

She waited hoping that Brennan would speak again. She didn't. "So, have you thought about it?"

Brennan glanced away quickly.

"You have." Tempe smiled. "So now all you need to do is talk to Booth about it."

Brennan nodded but didn't look like she had any plan of doing that.

"Looks like Booth is not the only one who avoids the controversial subjects."

"Booth would expect that a child would mean marriage. His experience with Parker's mother was not a good one."

"You don't want to get married?"

"An archaic institution."

"The American Way."

"So I understand."

"Independence cannot be overrated."

"Agreed."

Tempe held up her fist for Brennan to bump. Brennan looked a little confused but had seen people do it. She reluctantly bumped her fist with Tempe's.

"Still, not totally out of the realm of possibility," Tempe said implying that marriage wasn't all that hateful.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Ryan and Booth slowed to a walk. They were about three or four miles from the house. They had run the gambit of sports topics and found they were both avid fans of Hockey. Ryan had played years ago, but the SQ team was a little too rough for him (he claimed he was an old man). Booth suggested a little one-on-one if they went back to DC. Ryan readily agreed.

"Want to see something?" Ryan asked with a sly smile on his face.

"Sure." Booth was leery.

Ryan pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Booth. It was a solitaire diamond about a carat to carat and a half. He had been carrying it around with him for weeks. Booth was not up on diamonds, but it was shiny all right. "Nice." He handed it back.

"I'm going to ask Tempe to marry me on Christmas morning."

"Congratulations."

"Not yet … the good money's on her turning me down."

Booth was confused. "You expect her to turn you down, but you bought a ring and are going to ask her anyway?"

"Yeah, call me a masochist."

"Why buy that kind of trouble? What happens if she says 'no'?"

"Nothing, but she knows that I mean business."

"Mean business?"

"Tempe has this notion that I was some kind of major player and I let her believe it. It took the pressure off for each of us. Well things have changed. And it takes a handwritten note from God for her to change her mind sometimes. I want her to know that I'm committed."

"You've been married before?"

"Not officially."

"Your daughter's mother?'

"Weekend thing with an ex-lover."

"Tempe has though, right?"

"Yeah ... and I know what you are going to say."

Booth had no idea what he was going to say he was just asking questions.

"Her husband of twenty plus years cheated and really screwed with her head and now she has some serious trust issues. The marriage doesn't imply fidelity. She won't buy into that again probably ever."

"And yet?" Booth gestured toward the ring.

"I don't care if she never sets a date." Ryan studied the ring for a moment. He could always make a stud out of it. He still had a pierce in his ear. "Bad idea?'

"I'm thinking."

"Well I got her a back up present too, in case I change my mind." He stuffed the ring back in his pocket. "What about you and Brennan? First year for you guys ... how much pressure is this going to be?"

Booth laughed. "You don't know Bones very well, do you? She's not like a normal woman. She's not like a normal anything." Booth was becoming proud to say that. He was finally coming around to enjoying Brennan's different approach to life. "She doesn't read into the significance of presents. Jewelry is just jewelry. There is no secret meaning."

"But you got her one."

"Of course. Not the most romantic, but personal. A watch."

"Nice." Ryan wasn't impressed.

"It's a really nice watch," Booth protested. "Something she mentioned she was looking at."

"Well, that will work - I guess."

Booth was about to open his mouth and defend his position. Though the relationship may have been moving too slowly for his tastes, he had learned his lesson about pushing her before she was ready. As for how he conducted the relationship ... well ... Nearly everything he learned about women didn't apply to Brennan. All she ever wanted was truth and honesty. Most women like some little white lies here and there, not her. What he would normally do in a relationship with a woman didn't apply. The cues he would look for weren't there. He was totally out of his element with Brennan. That was driven home in the early months of their relationship.

They had gotten into a heated fight over a case and it turned personal - not name calling personal, but it was personal. Booth didn't remember ever fighting that intensely with anyone much less Brennan. They were in her apartment and it was after dinner when the fight escalated to a point where Booth knew that if it went much farther he would say something he would really regret - instead of all the other things he had said that he regretted. She was being totally unreasonable (in his mind) and of course wrong. He tossed the files he was working with down on the coffee table and said something definitive like "we are done talking about this." He stood up. Brennan stood up and demanded to know where he was going. Before he could respond, she kissed him. It was not what he was expecting. Two seconds before that she was berating him for something or other, and then she was kissing him. The intensity of the fight shifted to desire in a split second. Suffice it to say he didn't go home and the case and the disagreement was forgotten until the next morning - late the next morning.

If Brennan were a normal woman - and he hated thinking of her a not normal, she was extraordinary - but if she were any other woman that he had had a relationship with in the past, the fight would have been at least a three day to a week issue and they wouldn't have gotten over it without some serious conversation and lots of apologies. Instead, Brennan had turned a fight into one of the most passionate, intense nights Booth had ever had in his life. She was quite simply extraordinary. The next day they were still on opposite sides of the issue. Booth wanted to think that it was her amazing ability to compartmentalize, but the truth was - Brennan had learned through years of denying her feelings to redirect them and this time she redirected them into him with great results. A fight that could have put a wedge between them actually brought them closer. Extraordinary. Not normal - in Booth's experience - but he was liking the change. Truth be told he was happy with the status of their relationship and so no reason to change a thing.

"Yes, it works." Booth smiled. He wasn't thinking about the watch. He was thinking about how much more he had fallen in love with her in the past nine months.

They were just about to head back when Boyd yanked at the leash pulling it out of Ryan's hand and took off down the beach in the wrong direction. He was barking loudly. When they finally caught up to him he was digging at a mound in one of the dunes and barking. Ryan grabbed the end of the leash and tried to get him to back off. Then they saw it. Booth and Ryan recognized it at the same time. It was a human hand covered with sand in some serious state of decomp.

Ryan shook his head and rolled his eyes. "You can't tell me you didn't see that coming?" he said to Booth.

Booth didn't understand.

"Tempe can't go anywhere without finding some decomposing corpse or seven."

Booth knew that once Bones got into it there was no stopping her either. "We don't have to tell them. We call it in like private citizens and go back about our vacation."

Ryan shook his head and nodded back down the beach. "Too late ... Dead Body Radar must have gone off."

Booth looked toward the way Ryan was gesturing. Tempe and Brennan were making their way toward them.

"Merry Christmas." Ryan said sarcastically.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

An hour later the whole body had been recovered. The law enforcement was on the scene with the local coroner. Detective Montrose was not impressed with the credentials for Booth or Ryan. He didn't need the help of the FBI or some damned Canadian; of course Ryan spoke in heavily French accented English just to annoy the detective from Dixie. Booth found that very amusing. The coroner thought the Doctors Brennan were pulling his leg - seriously two forensic anthropologists named Temperance Brennan just happened to be vacationing with their cop boyfriends near where a body was found? What were the odds? Boyd was nearly taken to the pound for disturbing a crime scene. The tourists were dismissed.

Of course Brennan and Tempe didn't take that lying down; they were going to need an anthropologist's help to identify the body and determine cause of death - two were better. Tempe made a call to Sherriff Gullet. A short while later they were asked by the coroner for their help. The boys were unimpressed. They understood the concept of _**vacation**_ and knew how to leave the job at the office. So on the day before Christmas Eve, while Tempe and Brennan did their thing, Ryan and Booth did some male bonding. They played some hoops in the drive way. Drank beer and watched ESPN carrying on a running commentary about every sporting event that was covered. Ryan made one of his famous shrimp dinners - enough for four - but since the ladies didn't make it home for dinner, they finished it up. They went for a walk/run after dinner more for Boyd's sake than their own. When Tempe and Brennan finally walked in the door around eleven thirty that night they were involved in some horrible Christmas action movie and sent the ladies to the showers. Booth and Ryan agreed not to ask any questions about the case.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

The next morning Brennan slipped from bed early - very early. She was dressed and ready to go before she checked on Booth. He was determined to sleep in.

"It's actually a very interesting case," she said.

"I'm sure it is," Booth dismissed.

"It won't take that much time today. With the two of us working together it goes much faster. We are just waiting for the labs." She started to launch into her findings when Booth shut her down.

"So what time do you think you will be done? Should we plan lunch? Dinner? Midnight snack?"

"I'm sorry Booth. I know that this is not how you wanted to spend the Christmas holiday. But we will have the whole week." Any other woman would have been coy or sweet or sexy to pull Booth out of his mood, Brennan was very matter of fact. "I'd rather be here with you. I'd rather that you were working the case. But we are only doing the lab work - no detective work, OK?"

"Yeah, fine, sure." Booth wasn't really annoyed. Well he wasn't more annoyed than he was to begin with. This was not his idea of how to spend Christmas but it had more to do with no Parker, no tree than it did with no girlfriend. "You go do your thing. I'm sure Ryan and I can find some way to entertain ourselves." He truly meant that. But he was disappointed.

**x=o=x=o=x**

The conversation was much different in Tempe and Ryan's room. In fact there was very little spoken for the first fifteen minutes. Tempe had slipped from the bed trying not to wake him but he found her moments later in the bathroom. With a toothpaste kiss he pulled her back to bed and they had a proper morning greeting much to Birdie's annoyance. She promised to be back as early as she could; he waved her off told her to take as much time as she needed. Ryan was very used to finding his own way around Tempe. There was no reason to be upset or disappointed. Ryan was a firm believer in the quality over quantity time spent together. This body was a puzzle, one that Tempe had to solve or she would be distracted. He liked her best when he had her undivided attention.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

"Booth OK?" Tempe asked. Brennan had been pretty quiet, looking out the window deep in thought.

"He says he is and I have no reason to disbelieve him," she said. "But I know he's missing his son." They were quiet for a moment. Almost out of the blue, Brennan commented, "Booth doesn't have a lot of male friends." She continued. "There are people he plays hockey with but he doesn't often spend much time with other men as friends."

"Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know. I had assumed it was just about work and his son. He spends as much time with Parker as he can. And now he spends much of his non-work hours with me."

"You think he would benefit from having some male friends?"

"Maybe." Brennan turned to look at her. "Does Andy?"

"Have male friends?" She laughed. "Ryan is very social ... he has friends everywhere. He makes time for all of them too - lunches, dinners, whatever they do. And some of them are not male."

"Do you find that you are envious of this other friends ... other interests?"

"Not at all. Time apart is a natural part of our lives - for good and bad." Tempe smiled. "However, that will change slightly in the new year." Brennan gave her a puzzled look. "I have resigned my duties at UNCC and will be spending all my time in Montreal. That's Ryan's Christmas present. I'll still travel quite a bit with lectures and special requests, but I will spend most of my time in Canada. LaManche has secured a full time funding for a forensic anthropologist."

"This was your choice?" Tempe nodded. "A career choice?"

Tempe thought for a moment. "No, it was a personal choice. If Ryan and I were not together I would not have accepted the position."

"You do not feel that you have compromised your career for your relationship?"

"I have made the best choice for me. I don't want to be all about my career. It cost me one marriage and strained my relationship with my daughter."

Brennan looked back out the window again.

"Besides," Tempe added. "There are only a few of us that are as good as we are ... they will keep coming to us. And if they don't," she smiled over at Brennan. "Maybe I'll start writing too."

Brennan laughed. "I'll give you the name of my agent and publisher."

"Why the interest in Booth's social life?"

Brennan hated psychology but applied her anthropological skills on Booth. "Booth is a solitary man. It was probably what made him such a good sniper. He is patient and doesn't require a lot of social interaction. It's why he focuses so much on work."

"You focus on work."

"And I too do not require much social interaction. However I have discovered in the past nine months that I enjoy my relationship with you, with Booth and with the rest of the people in my life much more the more we spend non work time together."

"And you wonder if it is the same for Booth."

"We have always worked together. That has been our primary connection."

"And if you were to lose that?"

"I'm concerned that it will adversely affect our relationship." She paused for a moment. "And I don't think I could tolerate Booth getting another partner. I could handle another lover before another partner."

Tempe tried to figure out what Brennan was circling without actually saying. "Are you thinking about Booth and a baby?"

Brennan snapped her attention back to Tempe. How did she know? "Yes."

"A lot will change for the both of you if you decide to go that route. Your relationship will become public knowledge and I suspect that the FBI will not be able to look the other way anymore. Not to mention that it might be unwise for you to work together in such a dangerous profession with a child."

Brennan nodded. She had considered all of that.

"Brennan," Tempe said in a very sisterly fashion. "Don't make this decision on your own thinking you know what Booth wants or what he would be willing to give up."

Brennan nodded again. "Let's wrap this up as quickly as we can."

Tempe readily agreed.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Tempe and Brennan were back at the house by eleven thirty AM. Ryan and Booth were no were to be found, they were not picking up their cell phones, they didn't leave a note and Boyd was with them. Tempe suggested that they plan a feast that night and dragged Brennan off to the Farmer's market and fresh fish markets to buy all the ingredients. They did leave a note for the boys.

By time they were back, so were Ryan and Booth. They had had a very busy morning. The boys went out and got a Christmas tree with all the trimmings. They had hoped to have it up and done by time Tempe and Brennan came back, but they were still struggling to get it in the stand and straight. The day turned very festive: tree trimming, the Nutcracker filling the air waves, eggnog and food, lots and lots of food. The two couples had a great afternoon and evening. The doctors talked a little about the case but not much. The men regaled them with their account of picking out a tree from the few that were left on the lot, trying to keep Boyd from marking them and then braving the stores to find lights and ornaments. It looked like they had fun.

Ryan and Tempe were the first to turn in. Booth and Brennan decided to take a walk on the beach, Boyd of course insisted on accompanying them.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Tempe had found a sweet little red and green number on her latest visit to Vitoria's Secret. Ryan was more than inspired by her festive _joie de vivre_.

"Oh Santa Baby," Ryan said pulling her into bed next to him. "Can I open my present on Christmas eve?" He nuzzled her neck.

"Just one." She kissed him but held him off for the moment. "This is not your present," she said.

"You didn't need to get me anything else."

"I love how easy it is to please you, but I want to give you your real present. At least I hope you see it as a gift."

"Is it bigger than a bread box? Is it a car? A pony?"

"I have resigned my duties at UNCC. I will be closing up and moving out of the Annex at Sharon Hill and making my permanent residence in Montreal."

Ryan was stunned. He never expected her to do that. He didn't know how to respond.

"I can take it back and get you a pony if you'd rather," she said sarcastically annoyed that he didn't seem happy.

"Don't you dare." He sat up. "Are you sure about that? I mean really sure. I don't want you to do something just because it's something I want."

"I made this decision selfishly," she said. "But I gave it as a gift to you." She laughed. "I got you a real present too."

"Tempe, stop for just a minute. You're sure about this. Your family is down here."

"My daughter is down here and where is she this Christmas? Who knows? If she wants to see me she can damn well get on a plane."

"Pete?"

"Pete is my ex-husband ... yes a version of family, but not one I make decisions around. In fact I didn't when we were married and look how that turned out."

Ryan was stumped. He really never expected her to give up her UNCC job. He hadn't mentioned it to her in a long time. He didn't get irritable when she left and was pleasant on the phone as he sat alone in their house talking to her a thousand miles away. He had to believe that it really was her decision with no pressure from him. He wanted to make a joke about giving up all his mistresses but it wouldn't have been funny. Instead he made love with her and thanked her for his present.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth and Brennan had a very long walk on the beach. They had a good chance to catch up on the past couple of days' events and talk about the coming week. Booth said that he really liked Ryan and was actually enjoying this "couples" thing. Brennan talked a lot but it was obvious that something else was on her mind. Booth let her figure out the best time to bring it up - whatever it was.

When they came back the poured themselves a cognac and cuddled up in front of the fire and the tree.

"I like this as a new tradition," she said after a long period of quiet.

"What?"

"Decorating a tree on Christmas eve. Time with friends. Time alone." She kissed him. "More time alone."

He smiled. "That's one tradition I can get behind." He kissed her, pulled her to standing and hey slipped upstairs to their bedroom - the one away from Tempe and Ryan's.

The seduction progressed and just when things were about to get interesting, Brennan whispered in Booth's ear. "I want us to have a progeny."

Talk about a wet blanket at a party. "What?" Booth rolled away from her, stood up and pulled on his boxers. "Bones, you don't say that to a man just before you're going to ... well ... you know."

"It seemed like the appropriate time."

He shook his head. "No, not really." He ran his hands through his hair. Thankfully she pulled the sheet up to cover herself. Booth was not going to be able to have this conversation naked. "So, a baby."

"Yes. We talked about it years ago, and decided not to go through with it because of your brain tumor but you said something to me before that ... before we discovered the tumor. You said that you didn't want me to have a baby unless you were involved." Booth nodded remembering what he said. "I want us to be involved in creating a life and rearing it ... together."

"That's a big step, Bones."

"I think the time is appropriate. We have known each other sufficiently long enough. We are compatible professionally, personally and sexually. I feel a child of ours would benefit genetically and emotionally from us."

"No doubt," he said almost laughing. "Bones, we're not even living together."

"Is that important?"

"YES," he burst out a little too quickly. "Yes," he repeated a little softer. "Bones, I don't want to go through what I went through with Rebecca. If I'm to have another child, I want a real family. You know: mother, father, house, yard, dog."

"You don't like dogs."

"Work with me here, Bones."

"Do you think that we - you and I - can make a family?"

He sat down on the bed next to her and took her hand. "I do. I do think we can make a great family."

"Ok." She said easily.

"Bones, that means I want us to get married."

She nodded. "Why?"

"If we are to have a baby, I want us to be married and living together." He placed a hand under her chin and tilted it up so her eyes locked with his. "It does not mean that we have to get married or change anything. I love you. I love us. I'm a happy guy."

"You don't seem happy. You seem ... resigned to your fate."

"No," he protested. "Yes, I often defer to you because you have stronger feelings about certain things. And yes I would like to see us grow and change. I assumed living together would be the next step; didn't think we would go for the baby next. And I know how you feel about marriage."

"It's a legal contract accepted in society binding two people."

"No Bones, it's not. It's two people finding each other, falling in love and swearing before God and their friends that they will love and respect each other and share their lives together. It's about hope and promise and commitment. No one can know what's around the next bend, but committing to each other means that regardless of what it is - good or bad - that they will meet it and embrace it together."

"That kind of commitment can't be regulated by laws of your God or man." 

"Given the divorce rate, I will grant you that point. But I believe it. I believe that two people can commit to each other until the day they die and make it work in the good and bad times. That's the kind of commitment you should have when you bring a child into the world. Parker has suffered because Rebecca and I didn't have that."

"You're a great father, Booth. And Parker's a good kid." She paused for a moment. "Do you think we will be any less committed to a child if we are not married?"

"No, of course not. But I can't be a weekend father to another child of mine."

"Ok."

"Ok, what?"

"We can get married," she said flatly.

He laughed. "Is that what you want?"

"It's what you want."

"Do you really want a child that badly?" He was a little disappointed.

"I want our child." She kissed him. "You have shown me so much of the world that I would never have experienced without you. I have come to trust your instincts and view of the world. If you feel that marriage is an appropriate choice for us, I trust that. I don't need to stand up before friends and your God to state my commitment to you, but if that's what you think is best, then that's what we should do.

He couldn't hear a lesson about how some aboriginal tribe treats the man/woman relationship in their society. He didn't really like that answer but knew that when she said her vows she would mean them.

"Anthropologically speaking -"

"Don't." He stopped her. "Bones, this will change everything: our work, our non-work life, everything. And that's just getting married, if you add a baby into the mix it will change even more."

"Are you not ready for that change?"

"Are you?"

"I have watched Angela over the past year and noted the changes her life has undergone. What I have been struck by was how much didn't change. Angela is still Angela, but there is a joy in her eyes when she looks at Hodgins or talks about her daughter that is new."

Booth had noticed that too and he was envious of that. Booth was still thrown. He never expected this kind of one hundred and eighty degree turn from Brennan. "I don't think we should make a decision right way. I think we need to keep talking about it and be sure, be very sure what we are getting ourselves into."

"Do you not want another child?"

For the first time in years Booth was sure he wanted another kid, one whose life he would be a part of from conception through college, marriage and grandkids. Having a baby with Brennan was something he never entertained because he believed she would never agree to his requirements. "Yes."

"So we are agreed," she reached for him.

"It's not the simple, Bones." He pulled her to him in a tight embrace. "But we'll figure it out."

He kissed her.

"Will you get another partner?" she asked after a moment.

"No," he said definitively. "You are the only partner I will ever have." Whether that was true or not would be up to the FBI, but in Booth's mind it was a fact. It was only real concern that Brennan had and Booth had put her fears to rest. They would figure out the rest.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth and Ryan met in the kitchen just before dawn. Both were headed out for a run - they needed to clear their heads. Without discussion, they went the other direction. About five miles into the run they stopped and walked around trying to catch their breath. Booth was the first to speak.

"She said 'no'?" He asked referring to Ryan's plan to ask Tempe to marry him.

"She trumped me."

Booth didn't understand.

"She quit her job at UNCC and is making her permanent residence in Montreal - with me."

Booth shrugged. "You wanted that."

"Yeah, of course ... but now I can't ask her to marry me. She has already given up her career for me."

"Well, not completely. She is still working for the ..." Booth could never remember the name of the place that Tempe worked in Montreal. "... well there."

"True, and I am sure she will still get consulting calls. But it was huge; huge for her to do that."

They walked in silence back to toward the house.

"Brennan wants to have a baby," Booth said after a minute.

Ryan laughed. "Kind of puts that watch to shame, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, ya think?"

"So, is that good or bad?"

"I can't tell ... but I am going to have to go with good. She agreed to get married too."

"You wanted that too."

"Feels like a trick," Booth finally said with a laugh.

"You said Brennan wasn't like that. That she was hyper-rational. So, she weighed the pros and cons and made a different decision. She can change her mind - for all your protestations that she is not normal, she's still a woman."

Ryan and Booth did the fist bump thing.

"Here," Ryan dug in his pockets. "You should have this." He was going to give Booth the ring to give to Brennan but it wasn't in his pocket. "Tabernac!" He turned his pockets inside out.

"Maybe in your other pants?"

Ryan shook his head convinced it was gone for good.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

One of Ryan's many annoying habits was not picking up his clothes. Tempe got up after Ryan had been gone and made her way to the bathroom. His jeans were on the floor. She picked them up and tossed them into the hamper in the bathroom. There was an odd PING as something bounced off the tiles. She found it behind the toilet: a diamond solitaire ring. An engagement ring in Ryan's pocket? Oh this was just too good.

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

The public presents were opened around the tree with coffee and breakfast cake.

Tempe got a new iPhone from Ryan and a Peruvian artifact from Brennan and Booth.

Ryan got a new iPhone from Tempe and some really nice gortex gloves from Booth and Brennan.

Brennan got the exact watch she had been looking at from Booth and a Guatemalan necklace from Tempe and Ryan.

Booth got the exact watch he had been looking at from Brennan (apparently they were each pumping each other for information while giving information away) and a tie/sock set from Ryan and Tempe.

Brennan and Booth decided to take a drive leaving Ryan and Tempe alone with the breakfast dishes. Tempe was acting disappointed. She had wanted an iPhone and Ryan had downloaded a bunch of apps for her, but she was feigning disinterest.

After the dishes were done they settled in by the fire and the tree. Ryan finally asked her what the issue was.

"I just thought ... nothing." She was having a difficult time keeping a smile off her face.

"Tell me," he whispered in her ear.

"I assumed you were going to ask me to marry you this Christmas."

It took Ryan a nanosecond to realize that she had found the ring and was messing with him. He decided to mess back. "Why would you think that? I know how much you despise the thought of getting married again."

"Yeah," she hedged. "That's true. But with the house and all ... and me giving up North Carolina ... I just thought ..."

"Well, I didn't know that you resigned your position at UNCC."

She was silent for a moment thinking about another plan of attack. "Have you thought about it?"

"What?"

"Getting married."

"I've never been," he said with a straight face. "Not sure I want that to change. I'm pretty happy with the way things are. Don't know how they will change when you're home full time."

"I suppose I should have talked to you about it first."

"Maybe," he said. Luckily she was tucked in in front of him so she couldn't see his face. Ryan was no poker player and the shit eating grin was wider than the Mississippi. "But we'll work it out." Tempe just nodded. "Have you thought about it?"

"What?"

"Getting married?"

"Yeah, a little."

"What did you think about?"

"I thought that it was ... ya know ... not out of the realm of possibility."

"So if I asked, you would say what?"

"Are you asking?"

"Depends on the answer I'm going to get."

"You won't get an answer until you ask the question."

"True," he agreed. "Or you could ask, if you decide that's what you want. We're progressive enough for that."

Tempe decided to go all in. "Do you know that I have never been proposed to?"

"Pete? The countless before him."

"Pete was graduating. We were in his apartment packing up. He said and I quote - 'we should get married.' And we did. Never got an engagement ring ... I think our wedding rings were purchased at K*Mart."

"All romance that guy."

"Yeah, well twenty years of marriage didn't change that."

Ryan got her message. He slipped out from behind her and knelt down in front of her. He took both her hands in his and looked deeply into her eyes. "Temperance Brennan, I love you as I never thought possible. Would you please do me the honor of sharing your life with me? Will you marry me?"

Tempe had thought that she would refuse him if he asked just to be a _**pain in the ass**_ (she worked at it), but that was so sweet and so out of character for him. She couldn't say no. "Yes." She leaned down and kissed him.

They settled back on the couch in each other arms. Tempe pulled the ring out of her pocket. "So can I put this on now?"

"And don't take it off."

"It's really shiny," she said admiring it on her hand.

"It should be." He laced his fingers through hers and admired his purchase on her hand. It looked good. "Merry Christmas!"

"I'm looking forward to 2011."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

Booth and Brennan had driven around the island and had gotten out and walked along a pier. They weren't really sure where they were. They talked a little but not about anything important. They were just happy to be in each other's company.

They stood out looking over the boats and the small beach. A small child completely bundled for the weather, probably less than two came running down the sand toward the birds that were skittering around the shore. A father and mother came running after him. The father scooped him up and tossed him in the air. The little boy laughed and screamed and struggled to get down. The father protectively followed along after the little boy as he explored the beach, picking up shells and chasing the birds. The mother never took her eyes off her husband and child. The smile on her face told her the story. It didn't matter what had happened in the past and the future was still unknown, but for this space of time on Christmas day they were a happy little family unit and this would be a memory in all their minds as the future came at them.

Booth turned to Brennan and took her in his arms. "Let's have a baby," he said.

"And the rest of it?"

"All of it ... soup to nuts."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means I love you and I want it all. Marry me, buy a house with me and let's have a baby."

She smiled. "Studies have shown that children with siblings are more socially adjusted."

"Now you want two? Or three?" He laughed. "I'm in."

"Me too." They kissed and held on to each other for a long moment happy in their decision. There was so much that would change in the not so distant future, but they were ready for it.

"Merry Christmas, Booth."

"Happy New Year, Bones."

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x**

**A/N: ** Happy Holidays to Everyone! Here's to the possibilities that 2011 will bring!


End file.
